Lessons for Methodists 



•By 

D, D. VAUGHAN 

Pastor Halsted Street Institutional 
Church, Chicago 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



Copyright, 1910, 
By Jennings and Graham 



CONTENTS 



Preface, .... 7 

Suggestions for Leaders, - 9 

I. The Church Before Christ, - 15 

II. The Church of the Apostles, 21 

III. The Fall of the Church, - 27 

IV. The Reformation in Ger- 

many, 31 

V. The Reformation in Other 

Countries, - - - &8 

VI. John Wesley and Early 

Methodism, 45 

VII. Early Days of American 

Methodism, - - - 55 

VIII. Methodist Doctrines, - 66 

8 



4 CONTENTS 

IX. Methodist Rules, - - - 78 

X. Methodist Government, - 84 

XI. Methodist Institutions and 

Benevolences, - - 90 

XII. Methodist Hymns, 97 



XIII. The Family of Methodists, 109 

XIV. Our Sister Denominations, 118 

XV. What It Means to Be a 

Christian, - - - 130 

XVI. The Christian's Guide Book, 135 

XVII. The Prayer Life, - - 141 

Appendix, - - - - 145 

Index, 199 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
Page 

I. The Tabernacle, - - - 16 
II. Christian Martyrs, - - 24 

III. Constantine's Vision, - - 28 

IV. Martin Luther, - - 32 
V. John Hus, - - • - 40 

VI. John Wesley, 46 

VII. The Circuit Rider, - - 62 

VIII. The Last Supper, - - 72 

IX. The Boy Jesus, - - -78 

X. The Consecration of Francis 

Asbury, - . - 88 

5 



6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
Page 

XI. The Methodist Book Con- 
cern, - - - - 90 

XII. Charles Wesley, - - 98 

XIII. Susannah Wesley, - - 110 

XIV. Pilgrims, - 122 
XV. Daniel's Answer to the King, 130 

XVI. The Chained Bible, - - 136 
XVII. Christ in Gethsemane, - - 142 



PREFACE 



A CANDIDATE waits at the door of the Church 
for admission. The busy pastor receives him in- 
differently, or in wholesale fashion with a group 
of others. No previous class work has been done; 
there has not even been a personal call. The can- 
didate's exalted ideas of union with Christ's 
Church drop suddenly — the pastor has lost his op- 
portunity, a life that might have been saved for 
unusual service becomes commonplace, and indif- 
ferent Church membership results. 

The publisher's statement, "A probationer's 
text-book costing over fifteen cents will not sell 
readily," makes one think that Church member- 
ship is altogether too cheap. Children buy expen- 
sive text-books for the public school year after 
year — why should our publishers be restricted when 
only one book is to be purchased, bearing on the 
most important step in life? Because our pub- 
lishers have been so restricted it has been impos- 
sible in our text-books to cover the range of topics 
needed, and writers have been obliged to deal mostly 
with matter found in the Methodist Discipline. 

7 



8 



PREFACE 



In this book, however, an attempt is made to 
cover in outline such general information as is 
considered necessary for intelligent membership in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. The subjects 
here treated are those which have naturally sug- 
gested themselves as needful in the practical expe- 
rience of the past, for, like most pastors, the writer 
has taught his own candidates for Church mem- 
bership. 

No originality is claimed in the preparation of 
these lessons. About forty books have been con- 
sulted — secular, Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant. 
Whatever has seemed to be useful has been adopted 
and, if necessary, changed to meet the needs of 
the probationers' class. 

These lessons have been used successfully in the 
Halsted Street Institutional Church and elsewhere 
for both children and adults, and it is hoped that 
they will prove as helpful to classes in other 
Churches. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 



In the following lessons an attempt has been made 
to make the language simple but not childish. The 
few words that will require explanation have been 
used with the idea that part of a Christian edu- 
cation is to learn the meaning of certain theo- 
logical and ecclesiastical terms. 

There are three subjects which ought to be 
covered during the period from September to Palm 
Sunday: The Catechism, the Bible, and Church 
history. The writer therefore suggests that three 
lessons be assigned each week. These lessons may 
all be heard in one recitation, if that seems to be 
necessary. "While each subject may be completed 
before the other is taken up, there is more variety 
and a greater incentive to study if the three are 
carried along together. The following program 
for class work is suggested: 

I. Song, a Methodist Hymn chosen from Chap- 
ter XII, with a few words concerning its history, 
theology, poetic and musical value, etc. 

II. A brief prayer by the leader or some mem- 
ber of the class, closing with the Lord's Prayer. 

III. Reciting in concert Scripture verses or 
other memory work indicated in Appendix A. Rec- 

9 



10 SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 



itation of memory work by each member of the 
class. 

IV. The Catechism. 

V. Lesson from the text-book. 

VI. Explanation of lessons for next week. 

VII. A discussion of the trials and victories of 
the week, developed through personal questions by 
the leader. (Use " Stories of Bible Victories/' 
Emma A. Robinson. Jennings & Graham, 60 
cents.) 

VIII. Hymn from Chapter XII. 

IX. Brief prayer. 

Encourage the young people to remain for a 
personal interview or a friendly conversation. 

Chapters I to VII show from what our own 
Church has been developed, and covers the entire 
period previous to modern Methodism. 

Chapters VIII to XI show what our own Church 
is to-day. 

Chapters XIII and XIV deal with near and dis- 
tant relatives of our own denomination. Additional 
information may be found in Appendix B. 

Chapters XV to XVII contain practical sug- 
gestions concerning the Christian life. 

While the last three chapters are purposely left 
until the student has had the inspiration coming 
from the study of the devoted sacrifice of the he- 
roes of our Church, it is expected that the leader 
will seek to leave some personal message dealing 
with consecration and service at every lesson. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 11 



Chapter XII is expected to inspire a new love 
for our Church hymns. This chapter can not be 
well mastered in one or two lessons, hence it will 
not only lighten the work for the student, but it 
will give him a more thorough knowledge of Meth- 
odist hymns if this material is spread over the en= 
tire course, using two hymns at each lesson. 

The questions for each chapter are found in 
the back of the book. The children should mem- 
orize the ten doctrines of grace (these may be sub- 
stituted for the answer to question 70 in the Cate- 
chism), a verse from each of two or three of our 
best hymns, and as much Scripture as possible 
(suitable passages of Scripture will be found in Ap- 
pendix A). The teacher may show the child how 
to learn; e. g., the children may be asked to close 
the Catechism, and by using advance questions they 
may be convinced that they already know much 
of what the book contains, and that their chief 
work will be to arrange their knowledge. In mem- 
orizing the list of the twelve apostles, in question 
51, all additional information excepting actual 
names should be eliminated. The names should 
be arranged in groups of four. A similar group- 
ing of the books of the Bible makes the retention 
of these difficult names much easier. A memory 
chain is sometimes found helpful in encouraging 
boys and girls to memorize. This chain is made 
by slipping onto a strip of ribbon circular bits of 
cardboard on which are written the references 



12 SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 



learned. These chains may be left hanging in the 
class room. 

The Catechism used is that compiled under the 
direction of the Methodist Church, North and 
South, "The Junior Catechism." This may be 
secured at our Methodist Book Concern for five 
cents a copy, or fifty cents a dozen. 

Every member of the class ought to have a 
Bible. Scripture passages found in the Appendix 
of this book may be convenient, but they should 
not be used as a substitute for the Bible itself. 
Variety may be given the study of the Bible by 
the use of material found in Appendix A. 

Each member of the class should own, in addi- 
tion to the Catechism and the Bible, a text-book, 
as it is absolutely impossible to do good work with- 
out the necessary helps. The new "Methodist 
Hymnal" should be in the hands of each child, 
but these copies may be loaned to the children by 
the local church. 

"Pilgrim's Progress" may be read for ten min- 
utes at each recitation, or the book may be used as 
supplementary reading. 

Of course the teacher will not depend solely on 
the text-book for his own information, but will 
have many additional facts and incidents to add 
to each chapter to increase the interest. 

It is well worth while to make the occasion of 
the reception of boys and girls into the Church one 
of the great events of the year. Men outside the 



SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 13 



Church are not likely to attach any more impor- 
tance to Church membership than is indicated by 
the attitude of the pastors themselves, and espe- 
cially in Roman Catholic and Lutheran neighbor- 
hoods is it necessary to impress the public with 
the fact that the Methodist Church has something 
worth while to offer its people. 

It has been found wise to begin the work of 
the class as early as similar classes for instruction 
in the Roman and Lutheran Churches are started, 
usually in September. These Churches receive the 
children into membership on Palm Sunday, and 
there is no reason why we should not use that day. 
Diplomas should be prepared for presentation dur- 
ing the service in acknowledgment of the class work 
done. The following service has been used to good 
effect : 

1. Class marches into church in a body during 

the processional. 

2. Regular order of service until time for sermon. 

3. Class stands about the altar and pastor makes 

a statement concerning work done in Church 
history, etc. 

4. The members of the class are asked to repeat 

in concert, without the help of the pastor, the 
following : 

a. Names of the twelve apostles. 

b. Books of the Old Testament. 

c. Books of the New Testament. 

d. Answers to the following questions asked 

from the Catechism: Questions 1 to 12; 
59 to 64; 71 to 84; 109 to 118, 



14 SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS 



e. The Apostles' Creed. 

f . Three blessings to be asked before meals. 

g. Ten doctrines of grace. 

h. Psalm 1. 

i. Psalm 23. 

j. The Beatitudes, 
k. 1 Corinthians 13. 

1. Forty verses covering the plan of salvation, 
m. Each of the Ten Commandments, with the 

response found among the Chants (No. 

738) in the New Hymnal. 

5. All candidates kneel at altar while the pastor 

offers a prayer of consecration, closing with 
the Lord's Prayer in concert. 

6. Presentation of diplomas. 

7. Baptism. 

8. Reception into the Church. 

9. "While all are standing at the altar the congre- 

gation is invited to join in singing " Faith of 
Our Fathers" (No. 415). 
Candidates are seated. Short talk by the pastor. 



CHAPTER I 



THE CHURCH BEFORE CHRIST 

Was Adam a Jew? Did Abraham belong to a 
Church and attend its services? Adam was not a 
Jew, for the Hebrew race did not begin until God 
called Abraham, more than two thousand years 
after Adam, and promised that in him should all 
the nations of the earth be blessed. 

In the early days of the race men had direct 
communication with God. "We read of God talk- 
ing with Adam and Noah; we read that Enoch 
walked with God, and we know how God talked 
with Abraham, sometimes in a vision, sometimes 
through men, and sometimes directly ; reminding 
him of the stars of the heavens and the sands of 
the seashore, and promising to make his descend- 
ants like them in number. 

It was more than twenty -five hundred years af- 
ter Adam that God gave the Ten Commandments 
to Moses in the wilderness. At this time there 
was developed the first real, organized religion, 
bearing any resemblance to a church. With the 
Ten Commandments there came various laws de- 
scribing required forms of worship. When the ark 

15 



16 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



was constructed there began a systematic religious 
life under the leadership of prophets and teachers 
for all the Israelites. So we know that Abraham 
did not belong to a church. "While a tabernacle was 
erected in the wilderness, the first real church 
building was not erected until nine hundred years 
after Abraham, when Solomon's Temple was built. 

The tabernacle was sort of a tent. It had gold 
sides and a tent roof, and was about as large as 
an ordinary one-story cottage. The people could 
never go inside to worship, for only the priests 
were allowed to enter it. Surrounding the taber- 
nacle was a large yard or court, which had a fence 
made of high brass pillars with silver tops, and 
with curtains hanging between the pillars. 

In the yard in front of the sacred tent was an 
altar which was higher than a man's head. It 
was made of brass, and had a horn at each of the 
four corners. A fire was kept burning on the altar. 
It was miraculously kindled in the first place, and 
it never went out. Every morning and every even- 
ing a lamb was offered on this altar as a sacri- 
fice. Any one could bring a sacrifice to the altar 
here. The poor people brought turtle doves or 
pigeons, and sometimes flour and oil and wine were 
given. When an animal was about to be sacrificed 
the man who brought it put his hands upon the 
head, signifying that his sins passed from himself 
to the animal, and that the animal paid the death 
penalty required for sin. When a peace offering 



THE CHURCH BEFORE CHRIST 17 



was made the shoulder and the right breast were 
removed from the animal for the priest. Then the 
one offering the sacrifice would take the portion 
intended for the priest and the parts which were 
not good to eat and were to be burned, and would 
swing them in front of the altar or lift them toward 
Heaven. The good parts of the animal, which 
were not taken by the priest, were eaten by the 
one making the sacrifice, and the friends and the 
family were invited to the feast that day. Of 
course, the people did not share in all of the offer- 
ings that were made. 

There were days of special sacrifices; for ex- 
ample, the first day of each month; each day of 
the Passover Feast; the Day of Atonement, and 
the Feasts of the First Fruits, of the Trumpets, 
and of Tabernacles. 

The altar was not a place to dispose of what 
one did not want, for only the best would be ac- 
cepted. Animals must be without blemish, and 
only the best of fruit must be offered. The people 
were very liberal with their gifts, not only giving 
a tenth of their income, but also making many 
additional sacrifices. 

Inside the tabernacle was another altar, called 
the Altar of Incense. Here every morning and 
every evening the priests offered incense while the 
congregation prayed silently in the yard outside. 
Their prayers ascended with the fragrance and the 
smoke from the altar until the priests came out 
2 



18 LESSONS FOE METHODISTS 



and blessed the people, after which all the Levites 
burst into song. 

Behind the curtain in the back part of this 
sacred tent, the Tabernacle, was the Holy of Holies, 
containing the Ark of the Covenant, which held 
the tables of stone bearing the Ten Commandments. 
Into this most holy place only the high priest 
could enter, and he but once a year. Up to the 
time that Solomon's Temple was erected, three 
thousand years after Adam, the people had never 
worshiped in a church building. While they had 
the Tabernacle they had to stay out in the yard. 

The great Temple was erected by Solomon after 
David had collected an immense amount of mate- 
rial. The men and women did not worship together 
in this Temple, for the women were not accorded 
the same privileges as men, but were kept in an 
outer court called the Court of the Women. Oat- 
side of this was another court, called the Court 
of the Gentiles. It was in this outer court that 
Jesus found the men selling cattle for the sacrifice, 
and from which He drove them with the money 
changers. Like the tabernacle the Temple faced 
the east. 

There was but one temple, that at Jerusalem. 
In other towns there were places where the people 
gathered to hear the Law read and explained. 
These were called synagogues. In villages where 
there were no synagogues the people sometimes 
erected a slight enclosure where they could gather 



THE CHURCH BEFORE CHRIST 19 



for prayer. (See Acts 16:15.) While they did 
not have preaching service as often as we do in 
our Church to-day, there were frequent occasions 
of religious instruction, when, though a sermon 
was not preached from a text, portions of God's 
Word were read and explained. Not only the 
priests prayed, but the people also. Besides the 
psalms of David other prayers of the Old Testa- 
ment were very largely used. 

Music also played a part in the worship of 
these early days. At one time they had twenty- 
four bands of music in the Temple, comprising four 
thousand instruments (1 Chron. 23:5; 2 Chron. 
29: 25). Ezra speaks of two hundred singing men 
and women that were brought back to Jerusalem 
after the captivity. (Ezra 2: 65.) It is supposed 
that two or more separate choirs, with a general 
chorus, frequently sang in turn selections from the 
Psalms. Psalm 24 would lend itself well to this 
responsive method. 

At the time of Christ the service in the syna- 
gogue was about as follows : The congregation be- 
ing seated the priest ascended the pulpit and offered 
up a public prayer, the people rising from their 
seats and standing in an attitude of deep devotion. 
(Matt. 6:5; Mark 11 : 25 ; Luke 18 : 11, 50.) The 
prayers were nineteen in number, and were closed 
by reading the execration or curse. The next thing 
was a repetition of their phylacteries, which were 
little rolls of parchment on which were written 



20 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



words of the Law, worn by men upon their fore- 
heads and their left arms. Then came the reading 
of the Law and the prophets. (See Acts 13:15, 
27; Acts 15:21.) These were read through once 
a year. The last part of the service consisted of 
the expounding of the Scriptures and preaching 
to the people. This was done either by one of the 
officers or by some distinguished person who hap- 
pened to be present. The Savior often availed Him- 
self of the opportunity thus offered to address His 
countrymen (Luke 4: 16, 20), and there are several 
instances recorded of Jesus and His disciples teach- 
ing in the synagogue. (Matt. 13:54; Mark 6:2; 
John 18:20; Acts 13:5; 14:1; 15:44; 17:2, 4, 
10, 17; 18:4, 26; 19:8.) The whole service was 
concluded with a short prayer.* 



*For "Modern Jews" and "Ancient Jewish Sects" see 
Appendix B, pp. 172, 175. 



CHAPTER II 



THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES 

w HAT was the Church like when Peter and 
John preached? What were their sermons like? 
What kind of hymns did they sing? What was 
their order of service? Did you ever ask your- 
self these questions? We will try to answer them 
in this chapter. We can get some hint of their 
customs in the Book of Acts and in Paul's Epistles. 

We know about some of the sermons and some 
of the preachers, for in the second chapter of 
Acts we have one of Peter's sermons; in the thir- 
teenth, seventeenth, twenty-second, and twenty- 
sixth chapters of Acts we have some of Paul's 
sermons; in the seventh chapter of Acts we have 
the last sermon of Stephen; and Apollos is de- 
scribed as a preacher in the last part of the eight- 
eenth chapter of Acts. 

Most of the hymns they sang were psalms, or 
certain portions of the Old Testament prophecies. 
Sentences like 1 Timothy 3 : 16, are probably por- 
tions of hymns: "God was manifest in the flesh, 
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, believed on 
in the world, received up into glory." The sing- 
ing was sometimes led by one man, and Paul ex- 

21 



22 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



horts the whole congregation to sing (1 Cor. 14: 26 ; 
Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19). 

The early Christians were accustomed to par- 
take of the Lord's Supper every day.* This con- 
sisted originally of a full meal, provided by the 
rich ; meat, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, honey, bread, 
and wine were served. This abundant meal led to 
gluttony, which Paul condemns (1 Cor. 11: 21, 22) . 
so that later bread and wine only were served. 
They had no special liturgies or forms such as 
we now have. Their usual order of service was 
about as follows: The Eucharistic (Lord's Sup- 
per), prayer, the blessing of God on the gifts 
offered or the benediction, preaching of the words 
of Jesus, and reading the Scriptures or perhaps 
a letter from one of the Apostles (Acts 1: 15, 22; 
Acts 2:14, 36), consecration of the bread and 
wine, breaking of the bread, administering of the 
cup, a prayer of thanksgiving, probably the Lord's 
Prayer and hymns of praise. The Sabbath, or 
seventh day (Saturday) continued to be observed 
by Christian Jews. But Sunday, or the first day 
of the week, was also observed as the day of our 
Lord's resurrection. Gradually Sunday became 
more prominent, and finally the observance of the 
seventh day disappeared altogether. These weekly 
services were held in private homes, for secrecy 
was necessary— indeed, Christian churches were not 
erected until the third century. 



♦"Christian Archeology/* Bennett. 



THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES 23 



The early Church was made up of all sorts of 
people. There were Jews, Ethiopians. Greeks, and 
Romans. There were rich people; for example, 
the slave owner, Philemon; there were poor 
people, like Onesimus, Philemon's slave. There 
were members of Csesar's household; there were 
soldiers, and Manaen, the foster brother of Herod, 
was also a member. Of course, we Methodists think 
that the doctrines of the early Church were just 
like ours, and since other denominations make the 
same claim we shall have to read our Bibles very 
carefully to find out which is right. 

The government of the early Church was a 
development; likewise its methods of work; so 
that it is not at all important that we do things 
just as they did. It is important, however, that 
we hold the same doctrines that Jesus held. "When 
the Church was first started all property was held 
in common ; that is, every man sold what belonged 
to him and turned the money over to the treasurer, 
and the Church cared for the needs of all. This 
method led to such abuses, however, that it was 
finally given up. You remember how Ananias and 
Sapphira (Acts 5: 1-10) were unfair in their deal- 
ings ; and you remember also how dissension arose 
among the widows (Acts 6:1-6). It became nec- 
essary to appoint deacons to take care of the grow- 
ing business interests of the Church (Acts 6:1-7). 
Stephen was one of these early Church officials. 
These deacons cared for the poor and the sick, and 



24 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



also preached. Deaconesses were also appointed, 
who, like Dorcas, went about doing good (Acts 
9:36). Besides visiting the aged and the sick 
and the female poor, they instructed the orphans. 
There is no question about the benevolence of the 
early Church. 

The Bishops, or Presbyters, were originally 
the head of one society. Later a Bishop had charge 
of an entire city, and still later his authority was 
extended over a larger area. 

"While the foundations of the Church were laid 
by Christ, the Church proper began at Pentecost 
with that congregation described in the second 
chapter of Acts, made up of men of all nations. 
The first members were the three thousand people 
converted on the Day of Pentecost. 

The rapid growth of the early Church was due 
not only to the nearness to the events in Christ's 
life and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but to 
the many and severe persecutions. These perse- 
cutions scattered the converts everywhere, and they 
preached whenever opportunity was offered, even 
using the witness stand in court as an occasion to 
preach Christ. They were absolutely fearless, and 
preached those things that their hearers hated 
worst to hear: a divine Christ, a Christ crucified 
by the Jews, a resurrected Christ. James was be- 
headed by Herod (Acts 12: 2) ; Stephen was stoned 
(Acts 7); Saul himself was busy with persecu- 
tions (Acts 8:1-4; Acts 9). Tradition has it that 



THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES 25 



Peter was crucified with his head downward, and 
we know that Paul was finally beheaded by Nero. 

Nero, before whom Paul appeared, was one of 
the most wicked and cruel of emperors. He 
sewed Christians in the skins of wild beasts, and 
threw them to the dogs to be torn to pieces. He 
covered them with pitch and inflammable gum, and, 
setting fire to them, used them to light his gar- 
den during chariot races. Leckey, the historian, 
says: "We read of Christians bound in chairs of 
red-hot iron, while the stench of their half-con- 
sumed bodies rose in a suffocating cloud to heaven ; 
of others torn to the very bones by shells or hooks 
of iron ; of two hundred and twenty-seven converts 
sent on one occasion to the mines, each with the 
sinews of one leg severed by a red-hot iron, and 
with an eye scooped out of its socket ; of fires so 
slow that the victims writhed for hours in their 
agony; of tortures prolonged and varied through 
entire days. . . . For the love of their Divine 
Master, for the cause which they believed to be 
true, men and even weak girls endured these 
things, when one word would have freed them 
from their sufferings. Polycarp, an old man, said 
to be a disciple of the Apostle John, in the year 
155 was being led to execution for refusing to offer 
sacrifice to the gods and to Cassar. The execu- 
tioner, anxious to give his victim another chance, 
said: '"Why not save your life by saying, "Lord 
Caesar, ' ' and offering sacrifices to the gods ? ' Three 



26 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



times the old man replied 'No.' About the stake 
a great mob was gathered, and before the light was 
applied they gave him another chance to renounce 
Christ. 'Kenounce Christ!' cries the old man. 
i Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He 
has never done me wrong. How then can I curse 
my King and my Savior ? ' The fagots were heaped 
about him, and praying, 1 Omnipotent Lord God, 
Father of Jesus Christ, I bless Thee that Thou 
hast counted me worthy in this hour to take a place 
among Thy martyrs, and to drink of the cup of 
Thy Christ' — with this prayer on his lips his soul 
ascended with the flames into Heaven." 

During this period the Church grew rapidly 
in spite of its persecution, and you may be sure 
it was kept pure, for no one with impure heart or 
insincere motives would profess a belief that 
brought with it such hardships. 



CHAPTER III 



THE FALL OF THE CHURCH 

CHURCH services in an underground cemetery! 
That was certainly a queer place to meet for re- 
ligious worship, but it was the most sacred place 
in all the world to those whose friends had suffered 
cruel martyrdom at the hands of heathen emper- 
ors. The Romans had great respect for burial 
places, so that the Christians here were left un- 
molested. Hence, in the darkness of the caves, 
beside their dear ones who had died, these loyal 
followers of the Master met for prayer and praise, 
and for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. 

The Church was persecuted with more or less 
severity until the time of Constantine (306 A. D.). 
Constantine was one of six claimants for the Roman 
throne of his father. One of these opponents, 
Maxentius, gave battle to Constantine on the banks 
of the Tiber, ten miles from Rome. Previous to 
the engagement there occurred a remarkable event 
which had an important bearing on future Roman 
history and on the Church itself. Constantine 
claimed to see at noonday a luminous cross in the 
heavens, bearing the words, "Hoc vince" ("By 

27 



28 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



this conquer"). The form of the cross was the 
Greek letter X (Chi), intersected by the Greek let- 
ter P (Eho). This was the abbreviation of the 
Greek word for Christ. Constantine, very much 
puzzled, fell asleep, and Christ appeared to him, 
presenting him with the cross, and commanding 
him to use it as his ensign in battle; promising 
him victory over Maxentius as the reward of his 
obedience. Constantine, on awaking, accepted the 
vision as from God, and ever after he had this 
symbol, guarded by fifty chosen men, carried at 
the head of his troops in all his wars. Whether 
we dispute Constantine 's vision or not, the fact re- 
mains that after this time he gave his support to 
the Christian Church. 

Of course, many more joined the Church 
when the persecutions ceased, and with govern- 
ment sanction and support there came many 
errors. With the exception of a few sainted ones, 
whom God has always kept true in every period 
of time, the spirit of Christ was largely lost. 
Charles Kingsley in his novel, "Hypatia," tells 
of how some Nitrian monks, headed by Peter the 
Reader, with the encouragement of the Bishop of 
Alexandria, St. Cyril, seized Hypatia, a heathen 
philosopher, a woman, as she was returning from 
a lecture. She was dragged from her chariot, 
taken into a church, stripped, and hacked to death 
with oyster shells. Then she was torn in pieces and 
the fragments of her body burned to ashes. (415 



THE FALL OF THE CHURCH 29 



A. D.) We wonder how followers of the gentle- 
spirited Jesus could ever do such things as this, 
but this was only a beginning of the results which 
came from the substitution of a human organization 
and a man-made theology for the Holy Spirit and 
the Word of God. From this time until the Ref- 
ormation the Church continued to degenerate. 
Some of its Popes, whom the Roman Church to-day 
still declares infallible, were among the most im- 
moral and wicked men who have ever lived. 

It was during this long period of darkness that 
the Greek Catholic Church was separated from the 
Roman Catholic Church (1453 A. D.). This sep- 
aration arose not only from a difference in the 
temperament of the Eastern and Western people, 
but also from a difference in doctrine and discipline. 
They disagreed on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 
The Roman Church went too far on the doctrine 
of purgatory, and also on the question of forbidding 
the priests to marry. There also arose a difference 
of authority between the two cities, Constantinople 
and Rome; the Roman Church insisting that the 
Pope at Rome was the supreme ruler. There had 
been for centuries a difference of opinion on the 
use of images in the Church, the Greek Church pro- 
testing against the development of this form of 
idolatry. There also arose a difference of opinion 
on the question of the Lord's Supper; the Western 
Church (Roman) beginning to use unleavened 
bread, in the ninth century, after the manner of 



30 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



the Jewish Passover. The Crusades only made 
things worse, for the Greek Church was disgusted 
with the barbarities and excesses of the Eoman 
troops; so that in 1453 the separation came. 

As we read Church history the wonder is that 
men have been so patient, and that the Reforma- 
tion was so long postponed. But conditions grew 
so bad that finally there w r ere raised up enough 
men who were willing to give their lives in order 
to start a Reformation. Various orders of monks 
arose during this dreary, wicked period, who, dis- 
gusted with the sins of the clergy, withdrew into 
monasteries, there to live pure lives and seek closer 
fellowship with God. They remained as a part of 
the Church, for their reforms affected chiefly them- 
selves and did not disturb particularly the false 
leaders of the Church. But when such men as 
Savonarola later arose to express their indignation 
and to seek to purify the whole Church they were 
persecuted as enemies and heretics. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY 

U As soon as the money rings in the chest, the 
soul springs out of Purgatory. ' ' 

"Sobald das Geld im Kasten klingt, 
Die Seele aus dem Fegfeuer springt. 11 

So declared John Tetzel, of Leipzig, Germany, 
the famous seller of indulgences. And not only 
was salvation sold for the dead, as it is to-day in 
the Roman Church, but men could buy forgiveness 
for their sins even before the sins were committed. 
The doctrine of Rome concerning the power of the 
Church representatives to forgive sin, and the doc- 
trine of absolution from sin through penance, very 
naturally led up to the doctrine of indulgences; 
and like most other doctrines that have been added 
by the Roman Church, it was a source of great 
revenue, so that when the new St. Peter's Church 
in Rome was being built it furnished a means of 
realizing an enormous income. One of the arch- 
bishops in Germany had been given his position by 
the Pope through an agreement to pay a large sum 
of money. In order to reimburse those who had 

31 



82 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



loaned him this amount he secured from the Pope 
a monopoly of the sale of indulgences within his 
ecclesiastical domain during a term of eight years. 
Half of the money was to go to the Pope and the 
rest to himself. John Tetzel was the special rep- 
resentative who pushed these sales, visiting the 
fairs in order to reach large crowds of people. 

A humble German monk at this time was sitting 
one day in a confessional when some people who 
had been committing great sins came to him and 
asked for absolution. When the monk, Martin 
Luther, refused to grant it until they had under- 
gone certain forms of penance they showed him 
their indulgences and demanded that what they 
had paid for be recognized. This Luther refused 
to do. He prepared ninety-five theses, or argu- 
ments for debate, which he nailed to the door of 
his church, October 31, 1517. 

Martin Luther was the son of a poor miner. In 
order to get an education he went about from door 
to door singing and collecting money from kindly 
disposed persons. It was his intention to enter the 
legal profession, but being of a religious nature and 
spending much time reading the Bible, he finally 
entered a convent and became a priest, much against 
his father's will. In his Scripture reading he had 
been especially impressed with the Epistle to the 
Romans. Being sent on a mission to Rome in 1511, 
while climbing on his knees to the so-called judg- 
ment seat of Pilate, the words, 4 4 The just shall 



MARTIN LUTHER. 



REFORMATION IN GERMANY 33 



live by faith, ' ' flashed upon his soul and raised him 
to his feet. Luther's career as a reformer may be 
said to have commenced from that date, and it was 
no wonder that by 1517, impelled by the terrible 
sale of indulgences, his convictions gave him 
strength enough to become fearless of the Pope's 
displeasure and to nail his objections to the church 
door so that people could read them. These spread 
like wildfire all over Germany, and Pope Leo X 
sent a representative to silence the bold young 
monk. Luther, however, would not be silenced, but 
continued to protest. In view of this the Pope re- 
affirmed the doctrine of indulgences. In a debate 
before Puke George of Saxony Luther declared 
that the Pope was of human appointment and that 
he was not indispensable. He further aggravated 
the Roman Church by stating that some of the 
articles for which John Hus was burned were thor- 
oughly Christian. 

Luther's studies only served to strengthen his 
belief and to give more free expression to them. 
The Pope sent an order to Germany demanding 
that the writings of Luther be burned, that he be 
suspended from the ministry, and that he be ex- 
communicated if he refused to recant within sixty 
days. All persons or places sheltering Luther or 
his followers after excommunication were threat- 
ened. One noticeable point is that one of the prop- 
ositions singled out by the Pope as being objec- 
tionable was the one in which Luther declared it 
3 



84 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



contrary to the will of the Holy Spirit to burn 
heretics. Surrounded by professors from the Uni- 
versity and a great crowd of people, Luther burned 
the Pope's order in a bonfire at the city gate of 
Wittenberg. This declaration of war was final, and 
the fight spread all over Germany. People from 
all walks of life, weary with the tyranny and op- 
pression of Rome, flocked to the support of Luther. 
A meeting of Church and government officials was 
called at Worms. The Church had taken action 
against Luther, and the Pope attempted to have 
Charles the Fifth likewise take action against him. 
One of the counselors reminded him of the fate 
of Hus. Luther replied: "Hus has been burned, 
but not the truth with him. I will go on though 
as many devils were aiming at me as there are 
tiles on the roof." When asked finally w T hether 
he would recant, he replied that his conscience 
would not permit him, declaring : ' ' Here I stand ; 
I can do naught else. God help me. Amen." A 
few years after this when threatened with arrest 
by Duke George, and warned of his danger by a 
friend, he declared : i 1 One thing I can do for my- 
self ; if things are at Leipzig as they are at Witten- 
berg I would still go there, even if it rained Duke 
Georges for nine days and every one of them were 
nine times as fierce as he." 

Martin Luther made a translation of the Bible 
for the common people, which is still used by mem- 
bers of the Lutheran Church. He wrote some 



REFORMATION IN GERMANY 35 



hymns, among them being Hymn Number 101 in 
our Methodist Hymnal: 

"A might v fortress is our God, 

A bulwark never failing; 
Our helper, He, amid the flood 

Of mortal ills prevailing. 
For still our ancient foe 
Doth seek to work us woe; 
His craft and power are great, 
And, armed with cruel hate, 
On earth is not his equal." 



CHAPTER V 



THE REFORMATION IN OTHER 
COUNTRIES 

The Reformation in Germany came after the 
reformation in some other parts of Europe, but we 
have mentioned Martin Luther's work first because 
it was the greatest, and it was also the beginning 
of the stronger Protestantism of recent years. 

If our study of Church history does nothing 
else it ought to make us feel that Americans are 
not the only good people in the world, and that we 
owe to the foreign nations, who are now sending us 
so many immigrants, a debt of gratitude for the 
great men whom they have produced. We will take 
up one country at a time and learn just a few facts 
about each, but let us remember that a great many 
volumes have been written on subjects to which we 
will give only a few lines. 

Switzerland. 
The great leader of the Reformation in Switz- 
erland was John Calvin, a man who was very kind 
to his family, but very cruel to people who did not 
think as he did. He taught what is known to-day 
as " Calvinism that God elected certain people 

36 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



37 



to go to Heaven, and others to be punished eter- 
nally, and that the people themselves had nothing 
to say as to what their lives were to be; so that 
it wouldn't do a man any good to try to please 
God, for God had already decided what was to 
become of him anyway. 

Another great leader in Switzerland was 
Zwingli. Zwingli offended the Church by his inde- 
pendence and the freedom with which he criticised 
its sins. The disagreements led to war, and with 
only fifteen hundred men he was compelled to 
meet the enemy. Although in the thick of the 
fight he would raise no weapon himself. " While 
leaning over a wounded soldier with whom he was 
praying he was knocked down by a stone thrown 
by one of his enemies. As he arose he was pierced 
with a lance. While bleeding he uttered his last 
recorded words: 'What matters this evil? They 
may kill the body; the soul they can not kill.' 
With his eyes upturned to heaven and his hands 
folded in prayer across his breast, he was called 
upon by one of his enemies, who stood over him 
with a drawn sword, to call upon the saints and 
confess to a priest. Shaking his head in refusal 
he was thrust through and his body was burned. " 

England. 

The first great leader of the English Reforma- 
tion was John Wyclif (1319 to 1384). He criti- 
cised the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church 



38 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



very severely because they were made Bishops by 
the payment of money; they bought their positions. 
He criticised the worldliness of the Church and 
the gluttony of the priests, whose kitchens were 
said to be more splendid than the palaces of kings. 
He criticised them for their clamorous and un- 
scrupulous begging and the easy absolution (for- 
giveness) which they gave to sinners. He objected 
to the use of false relics; for example, the priests 
displayed an old rag which they said was the veil 
of the Virgin Mary, and another old piece of cloth 
which they said was a part of a sail from St. Peter's 
boat. He saw the great need of a knowledge of 
God's Word by the common people, and he made 
the first translation of the New Testament. One 
of his assistants translated the Old Testament, and 
this Bible furnished the first literary foundation 
for the English language. The Church tried in 
every way to destroy all copies of the Bible, but 
Wyclif had placed portions in the hands of the 
clergy and the people. The Pope commanded that 
Wyclif appear before him, but he refused to do 
this. Before the Church could take action against 
him he died, while yet a priest in the Roman 
Church. 

The English Church finally became independent 
under Henry the Eighth, who had a disagreement 
with the Pope. Henry was wrong in requesting 
the Pope to grant the divorce he wanted, and the 
Pope was right in refusing it. Henry *s withdrawal 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



39 



from the Pope's authority was right, however, and 
it gave to England the freedom and advancement 
that comes to all Protestant countries. Of course, 
the real work of the Reformation was done by Wye- 
lif and other godly men rather than by the king, 
Henry did not change the religion of the people, 
He could not do that, but his attitude made possible 
the development of reform which was already 
started. 

Scotland. 

The great leader of the Scotch Reformation was 
John Knox. For nineteen years Knox was com- 
pelled by France and Catholic Scotland to act as 
a galley slave. He was chained to the oar with 
the expectation on the part of the Church that 
his spirit would be broken, but he was still un- 
conquered and was preserved by God to continue 
his leadership for the truth. 

Bohemia. 

Jan Hus (John of Husenic, 1369 to 1415) was 
the great leader of the Reformation in Bohemia. 
His parents were poor, and like Martin Luther he 
was compelled to sing for an education. While in 
college he read "Wyclif's writings and began to 
see the wrongs that existed in the Church. He op- 
posed vigorously the worldly rule of the Church 
and the riches of the clergy. He declared that 
money could not buy indulgence for sin, and that 
only true repentance could win forgiveness. He 



40 



LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



was excommunicated, but he refused to recognize 
the power of the Church to silence him. He ap- 
pealed from the Church council and the Pope to 
the Bible and to Christ. He declared that the 
doctrine that the Pope can not make mistakes is 
blasphemy. The people of Prague, where Hus 
taught, burned the Pope's orders (bulls) in bon- 
fires in the public streets. Hus was summoned to 
Constance and it was promised that he would be 
safely cared for. He was tried and was not al- 
lowed to speak in his cwn defense nor to have 
any one plead for him. They asked him to recant 
and to promise not to preach nor teach the objec- 
tionable doctrines any more. He very rightly re- 
fused to do this, and was burned at the stake July 
6, 1415. The Bohemians still celebrate this day 
as a holiday. 

A man by the name of Jerome was a great 
friend of Hus. He was not a priest, but just a 
member of the Catholic Church. He attended the 
University of Prague, and also read Wyclif 's writ- 
ings. He joined his friend in denouncing the sins 
of the Church, and he urged Hus to go when sum- 
moned to the trial. He himself was thrown into 
prison and bound with heavy chains. After Hus 
had been burned he was promised his freedom if 
he would say that the Church did right in the 
execution of his friend. He refused to do this 
and was sentenced to the same death. As he stood 
before the priests who condemned him, he said: 
' 1 I leave you as a legacy after my death a sting 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



41 



and a gnawing to pierce your consciences, and I cite 
yon to appear before the Most High and Righteous 
Judge, the Lord God Almighty, to answer me be- 
fore Him at the end of one hundred years." Drag- 
ging his heavy chains he was led out of prison 
singing hymns. He was stripped almost naked and 
bound with his chains to the stake. They piled 
the wood above his head behind and as high as 
his chest in front. Placing his garments on the 
logs, they were about to light the fire behind him 
where he could not see it. "Come here!" he cried, 
"and light the fire in my sight; if I had feared 
it I should never have come to this place. ' ' Chant- 
ing, until the flames choked him, ' ' Into Thy hands, 
Lord God, I commit my soul," this heroic man 
gave up his life, one of the many martyrs who 
bought freedom of worship for people of the pres- 
ent day. 

Italy. 

The great leader of the Italian Reformation 
was Savonarola (1452-1498). He criticised very 
severely the wickedness of the Pope and the 
priests. Pope Innocent VIII had bought his elec- 
tion and had been guilty of sins unmentionable. 
Savonarola himself was a priest, but he hated sin, 
and his one ambition was to bring freedom to the 
common people of the Church and to his country. 
He was feared all the more because he was power- 
ful as a preacher. It is said that his dark gray eyes 
seemed to flash red fire when he preached ; and the 



42 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



people looked upon him as a Heaven-sent prophet. 
He was ordered to go to Rome, but he refused. 
"When threats failed the Church offered to promote 
him and make him a Cardinal if he would stop 
preaching. Refusing to do what he knew to be 
wrong, he was excommunicated by the Church and 
finally tried, tortured, and condemned as a here- 
tic. On May 23, 1498, he and two other priests 
were strangled and their bodies were burned by 
the executioner. 

France. 

There were no great leaders in France who par- 
ticularly attract our attention to-day. The perse- 
cutions by Rome, however, in France especially in- 
terest Americans, because of the large number of 
French Huguenots that were driven as emigrants 
to the United States. The most barbarous massa- 
cre took place on St. Bartholomew's Day. The 
leader of the Protestants, Coligny, was mur- 
dered, and at the same time, while King Charles 
and his mother watched the scene, thousands were 
killed in Paris and multitudes outside of the city. 
It is estimated that from ten thousand to one hun- 
dred thousand Protestants were murdered on this 
day. While Pope Gregory did not know before- 
hand of the massacre, when he heard of it he con- 
gratulated the king, illuminated Rome, and ordered 
great processions in honor of the event. He or- 
dered "Te Deums" to be sung, and in every pos- 
sible way expressed his joy at what had occurred. 



IN OTHEE COUNTRIES 



43 



The Netherlands. 
At the time of the German Reformation the 
Netherlands were under the rule of Spain. These 
liberty -loving people of Holland received the teach- 
ings of Luther enthusiastically. His writings were 
read eagerly, and his hymns were sung with vigor 
along the dikes, on the boats, and in the cottages, 
Philip II, the successor of the cruel Charles V of 
Spain, opposed the new teachings and slaughtered 
multitudes of Protestants. The people were finally 
driven into a revolution, and the Spanish army, 
under the cruel Duke of Alva, was sent to subdue 
them. The Inquisition was started, and the fires of 
martyrdom were started all over the land. To be 
known as a Protestant meant certain death. Prob- 
ably one hundred thousand people were murdered. 
With Erasmus as leader in the Church and William 
of Orange as political leader, they began a fight 
for political and religious liberty, in which the 
Protestant cause was finally triumphant. 

Spain. 

It did not take long for Lutheran doctrines to 
spread into Spain, but here as everywhere they 
met the violent opposition of the Church. The 
tortures which the Church used in Spain to com- 
pel people to be true to her false teachings have 
never been surpassed by even the cruelties of the 
heathen. The merciful form of execution by the 
sword was forbidden, and public festivals, in which 



44 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



those who had left the Roman Church were burned, 
became frequent. The cruelest instruments of tor- 
ture were provided ; machines for crushing live peo- 
ple ? s skulls and pulling their bones apart were in- 
vented ; nails were driven under their finger nails ; 
and other ways of torture too horrible to describe 
were used. 

Scandinavia. 

The great leader in the Scandinavian Reforma- 
tion was Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sueden (1594 
to 1632). He was the great hero of the Thirty 
Years' War and was known as "The Lion of the 
North.' 9 On November 6, 1632, while riding at 
the head of his cavalry at Lutzen he met the enemy 
in a dense fog; and Gustavus, becoming separated 
from his men, was surrounded by the enemy and 
killed, but the future prosperity of Protestantism 
in Norway and Sweden was assured. 

Poland, Hungary, and the Southern Slavs. 
The young noblemen of Poland, attending the 
University of Wittenberg, brought back Protestant 
ideas which, together with the intercourse between 
Polish and German cities, led to the spread of the 
Polish Reformation. Likewise in Hungary the new 
ideas spread; and among the Slavs of Southern 
Europe, through the reading of the Bible and the 
influence of progressive thinkers, the Roman 
Church began to lose its hold upon many of the 
people. 



CHAPTER VI 



JOHN WESLEY AND EARLY 
METHODISM 

Althot: GH the Reformation in Germany under 
Martin Luther and in England under Wyclif had 
accomplished much, it was yet incomplete. The 
hearts of the clergy and of the people had not yet 
been touched by the regenerating influence of God's 
Spirit, experienced under the preaching of George 
Whitefield and John Wesley. Hence there was a 
relapse into wickedness and corruption similar to 
that preceding the Reformation. 

The Church of England (the Episcopal Church) 
was the Church that almost every one in England 
attended in the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. People were not as good as they ought to 
have been, and historians say that the religious 
life was so low that judges swore on the bench and 
that ladies and clergymen alike were profane. Pro- 
fanity was very common in print, so that some 
of the literature of that day is not fit to read. 
The morals of the country were very bad, and, 
indeed, it was not safe to go out on the street after 
dark The hoodlums on the streets of London 

45 



46 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



were accustomed to attack passers-by; often so se- 
verely that serious injury was done. Not only pro- 
fanity, but drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and 
bad amusements were most common. Infidelity 
was professed by multitudes of the better people; 
and it is no wonder, for many of the preachers 
spent more time in the saloon than they did in 
the church. Card-playing, fox-hunting, and self- 
indulgence interested them more than the souls of 
their people. Their great concern was to keep on 
good terms with the nobles who had appointee! 
them, so that they made no profession of being 
religious themselves. 

Into the midst of such conditions in the year 
1703 there was born in the parsonage of Samuel 
Wesley a baby boy, the fifteenth child. His par- 
ents called him John Benjamin, and of course they 
loved him. His brother Charles was the eighteenth 
baby, and there was just one more child born, 
making a family of nineteen. 

We may easily imagine how busy that good 
mother, Susannah Wesley, was; for in those days 
people did not buy many things at the store. They 
had to make all of their own clothes and prepare 
their own foods for the winter. Indeed, very lit- 
tle was manufactured outside of the home. They 
did not have public schools such as we have to-day, 
so that besides all of the housework and the making 
of clothes for the family, this busy mother of nine- 
teen children was obliged to be the school teacher. 




JOHN WESLEY. 



EARLY METHODISM 



47 



We might think that she would not have much 
time to talk to the children or to hear them say 
their prayers. Yet she was very particular in- 
deed about these things. She used to take the chil- 
dren aside one at a time and talk to them about 
loving and obeying God. John's time was Thurs- 
day night. It is no wonder that Mrs. Wesley had 
such good children. Any one of three of the boys 
would have made the name Wesley famous. Sam- 
uel was a hymn writer; Charles was the greatest 
hymn writer that the world has ever known, and 
John was the organizer of the great Methodist 
Church, which has a following of nearly twenty 
million people. 

Mrs. Wesley was very methodical in her deal- 
ings with the children. Her school lasted from 
nine to twelve in the morning, and from two to 
five in the afternoon. She was very strict. Each 
child learned the alphabet when he was five years 
old, and he was required to learn it in one day. 
The children were all taught to cry softly, and 
no child was given anything after he had cried 
for it. They were never given anything to eat be- 
tween meals, and they were all put to bed at eight 
o'clock. Each child was taught to expect punish- 
ment for wrong-doing after he was one year old. 
If a child did wrong and confessed, no punishment 
was given. 

The family had a constant struggle to pay bills, 
and because John's father could not pay his debts 



48 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



as quickly as a certain man wanted him to at one 
time, he was put into jail for it. 

The father was very plain in his preaching 
against sin, and twice the parsonage was set on fire 
by bad men. The first time the fire was discovered 
in time and put out; but the second time the 
building was destroyed. Of course, they were all 
in a great hurry to get out, but when they reached 
the yard they looked the children over and dis- 
covered that six-year-old John had been left behind. 
The frantic father rushed back into the house, 
but found that the stairway had been burned down. 
Thinking his boy lost and knowing of no chance 
to rescue him, he fell on his knees in the hall in 
prayer. "While this was taking place, John had 
been awakened by the glaring flames, and, finding 
it impossible to go down the stairs, he climbed on 
a box by the window so that the crowd below could 
see him. There was no ladder, however, and John 
would have lost his life but for the bright thought 
of two men who were watching the fire. These 
two men hurried to a spot beneath the window 
where John was standing, and the lighter one 
climbed upon the shoulders of the other, thus mak- 
ing himself just high enough to reach the little 
boy. He had barely taken the child into his arms 
when the roof of the building fell in. Ever after 
this John's mother felt that God had spared him 
for some special purpose, and she wrote in her 
diary: "I do intend to be more particularly care- 



EARLY METHODISM 



49 



ful of the soul of this child. . . . Lord, give 
me grace, and bless my efforts with good success." 

After having studied for several years at his 
mother's school, John was sent to a sort of high 
school, called "The Charter-House School," in Lon- 
don. The English private schools have not always 
been good, as all of you know who have read 
"Nicholas Nickleby." In John's school the stu- 
dents were poorly fed, and the larger boys robbed 
the smaller ones of their share of meat, so that 
many times he was compelled to live entirely upon 
bread. John's father, however, had told him before 
he left home to run around the school house garden 
three times every day, so that his health was very 
good. He was very studious, and finally was pre- 
pared for Oxford College. 

John did such good work in Oxford that they 
chose him as a lecturer in the Greek classes. After 
graduating and assisting his father for two years 
he was asked to return to Oxford and act as mod- 
erator. He was here for six years, and during this 
time he and his brother Charles organized the 
"Holy Club." Other students joined them, among 
them George Whitefield. They were co methodical 
in everything they did that the students scorn- 
fully called them "Methodists," and we have al- 
ways kept the name. These young men were very 
much in earnest about their religious life. John 
fasted twice a week, walked twenty-five miles a day, 
visited the sick, and gave away so much that he did 



50 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



not have enough left fpr his own necessities; so 
that finally he was taken sick and his life was 
threatened. 

In the year 1732 (the year George Y^ashington 
was born) Lord Oglethorpe returned to England 
from Georgia and asked for a preacher to take back 
with him. Both John and Charles went to America. 
During the voyage, which lasted nearly three 
months, a terrific storm came up and it was feared 
that the ship would be lost. The two preachers 
were perplexed as they watched some good people, 
Moravians, who spent their time singing hymns and 
praising God during the storm. The Moravians 
explained afterwards that they were not at all 
afraid, for they had been converted. This set John 
to thinking, so that he questioned his own conver- 
sion and in later years was led into a deep reli- 
gious experience. 

At the end of two years the two brothers re- 
turned to England, disappointed because they 
could not preach to the Indians in their own lan- 
guage, and feeling that their work with the colonists 
had not been satisfactory. They were also very 
much disturbed about their own hearts. Like most 
people who are trained in Churches where Church 
forms play a large part, they tried to satisfy their 
hearts by punishing the body and following out 
the forms of the Church. They lived on bread 
and water; slept on the ground; John even went 
barefoot. Eemembering his experience with the 



EARLY METHODISM 



51 



Moravians John went to one of the Moravian 
preachers, and his talk with him served only to 
deepen his conviction. On their return to London 
John met Peter Boehler, a Moravian preacher, every 
day for several weeks; and at about a quarter be- 
fore nine, on Wednesday evening, May 28, 1738, 
John Wesley entered into a real religious expe- 
rience. He says: "I felt my heart strangely 
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, 
for salvation ; and an assurance was given me that 
He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved 
me from the law of sin and death. ' ' Charles had 
been converted three days before John, and his 
hymns are rich with the joy of his religious experi- 
ence. George Whitefield had entered a new life 
even before the Wesleys, and he describes his con- 
version thus: "0, with what joy, joy unspeakable, 
even joy that was full of glory, was my soul filled 
when the weight of sin went off, and an abiding 
sense of the pardoning love of God and a full as- 
surance of faith broke in upon my disconsolate 
soul." The conversion of these three men was the 
beginning not only of Methodism, but of a new era 
for the entire Protestant Church. 

These three men began to preach immediately 
of the new experience that had so strangely 
warmed their own hearts. They were not allowed, 
however, to preach in the Episcopal Churches very 
often, for deep conviction followed their preaching 
and congregations were seriously upset by those 



53 LESSONS FOE METHODISTS 



who entered into the new experience and others who 
were longing to find peace. They preached to 
great multitudes in the open air, sometimes be- 
fore a congregation of ten thousand people. John 
"Wesley encountered many mobs and several times 
narrowly escaped with his life. For example, at 
"Walsal the rabble pressed him from one end of 
the town to the other. In descending a steep and 
slippery part of the road a vigorous effort to throw 
him down was made, which, if successful, would 
probably have ended in his death. One of his 
women converts was thrown into the river. A 
strong man behind him aimed several blows 
with an oak club at the back of his head, 
but some way in the confusion these were all 
turned aside. He was struck a powerful blow 
on the chest, and another on the mouth, until 
the blood gushed out.* "The noise on every 
side," he says, "was like the roaring of the sea. 
Many cried, 6 Knock his brains out! Down with 
him! Kill him at once. Crucify him!' 'No, 
let us hear him first ! ' shouted others. ' ' He at last 
broke out aloud with prayer. The ruffian who had 
headed the mob, a bear-garden prize-fighter, was 
struck with awe, and turning to him said: "Sir, 
I would spend my life for you. Follow me, and 
not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head." 
Several others now rallied for his protection. An 
honest butcher cried out for him and, bravely lay- 



* Stevens's History of Methodism. 



EARLY METHODISM 



53 



ing hold on four or five of the most violent of the 
rioters, thrust them away. The people fell back 
as if by common consent and, led on through their 
opened ranks, he safely escaped to his lodging. 

The Methodists of the town had endured intol- 
erable wrongs before the riot reached this fearful 
crisis. "Women and children had been knocked 
down and dragged in the gutters of the streets; 
their houses had been attacked, their windows 
broken, and their furniture demolished. Their 
enemies drew up a form of recantation which they 
declared all Methodists should sign ; and those who 
refused to do so were beaten and placed in peril 
of their lives. The clergy and the magistrates as 
a rule favored the mob. A constable who protected 
Wesley was killed and hung up. A feeble old man 
was so abused that he died, and one woman was 
beaten to death. In one town they entered the 
Methodist houses, broke all the windows and tore 
out the frames, smashed the tables and chairs and 
chests of drawers, and dashed to pieces every bit 
of furniture that was movable. The feather beds 
they cut up and scattered about the room, and car- 
ried away what wearing apparel and things of value 
they wanted for themselves. Employers threat- 
ened to discharge their employees if they did not 
help in this work of fxghting the Methodists. 

But in spite of all this persecution the Metho- 
dists grew rapidly in numbers. Wesley sent out 
mechanics, merchants, and soldiers as preachers, 



54 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



and it did not take long for his teachings to spread. 
Wesley himself worked most faithfully. It is esti- 
mated that he traveled two hundred and seventy 
thousand miles on horseback, that he preached forty 
thousand sermons, and that his writings would fill 
twenty large volumes. 

Wesley died in his eighty-eighth year, leaving 
a membership in his societies of 120,000. He had 
always declared that he would die poor. During 
his lifetime it is estimated that he gave away fifty 
thousand dollars. Aside from five dollars apiece, 
which he left to pay the pallbearers who carried 
him to the grave, he left only his books, an old 
teapot, and a few old spoons. 



CHAPTER VII 



EARLY DAYS OF AMERICAN 
METHODISM 

In the year 1766, ten years before the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, Paul Ruckle, a 
young Irishman, and some friends were gathered 
about the fireplace in New York, busy with a game 
of cards. His sister, Mrs. Barbara Heck, sud- 
denly appeared on the scene, and seizing the cards, 
she threw them all into the fire, warning the men 
of the danger of neglecting their religious life, and 
telling them of their duty. Hastening to the home 
of Philip Embury, her cousin, Mrs. Heck begged 
him to start a Methodist Class Meeting, for he had 
been a local preacher in Ireland under John Wes- 
ley. Four people were gathered together, and they 
prayed and sang, and Embury preached to them 
in his own home. This was the beginning of the 
Methodist Church in America. 

One day while worshiping they were surprised, 
and no doubt somewhat alarmed, at seeing a 
stranger with a bandage over one eye, and with 
military dress and bearing and wearing a sword, 
enter the room. They recognized him at once as 

55 



56 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



an officer in the royal army, and they feared that 
he had come to prohibit their meetings. They were 
pleased, however, to notice that he arose with them 
to sing, and kneeled with them in prayer. At the 
close of the meeting he introduced himself as Cap- 
tain Thomas Webb, one of John Wesley's local 
preachers in the British army. 

The society grew until it finally became neces- 
sary to erect a church building in 1763. This first 
Methodist organization in the United States still 
exists, and is known as the John Street Church 
in New York. Captain Webb subscribed one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars towards the new building, and 
Philip Embury was the first preacher. 

They had no organ nor choir, and no backs to 
the benches. To get into the gallery the congre- 
gation was obliged to climb a ladder. In those 
days the men sat on one side of the church, and 
the WTmien on the other ; and the Methodist people 
wore a different dress from other people. The 
members of the new Church wrote to John Wesley 
for a preacher. Richard Boardman and Joseph 
Pilmore were sent. 

The new teachings, which brought so much joy 
to people's hearts, spread very rapidly, and men, 
being converted, went everywhere telling the good 
news. At the close of the Revolutionary War, John 
Wesley, being over eighty years of age and expect- 
ing soon to die, declared that since God had granted 
the Colonies their liberties, he also would grant 



EARLY AMERICAN METHODISM 57 



his people their liberty from control by the Metho- 
dists of England. 

The Church had grown to great proportions, 
and the members suffered a great deal without the 
sacraments, for Wesley had forbidden his preachers 
up to this time to administer the sacraments, com- 
pelling them always to go to the Episcopal Church, 
where often they were not graciously received. 
Francis Asbury and Dr. Thomas Coke were accord- 
ingly sent over by Wesley to act as general super- 
intendents of the American Methodist Church. Af- 
ter being elected by the first General Conference, 
held on Christmas, 1784, they were consecrated as 
Bishops, and the Methodist Episcopal Church be- 
gan an independent existence. 

In these days there were no railroads, and the 
preachers were compelled to travel from place to 
place on horseback. The people were poor and 
could not afford to support pastors of their own, 
so that local preachers, men who made their living 
as tradesmen, mechanics, or farmers, were left in 
charge of a church, while a regular pastor had 
many churches, sometimes hundreds of miles apart, 
to look after. They were obliged to suffer the se- 
verest privations, driving through cold and heat, 
rain and snow, fording the rivers and being sub- 
jected to the harshest kind of treatment. 

Freeborn Garrettson was one of these early 
pioneer heroes. He preached as many as four ser- 
mons some days, and his sufferings are typical of 



58 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 

what the other preachers had to go through. At 
one meeting he was threatened with imprisonment 
if he preached, but he closed the service unmo- 
lested. Starting away on horseback he was fol- 
lowed by a desperate man, a former judge, who 
struck him a blow on the head with a club. Gar- 
rettson whipped up his horse and tried to escape, 
but his assailant, having a swifter animal, overtook 
him, again bringing his club down, and this time 
knocking his victim senseless to the ground. The 
preacher was taken to a house, where it was thought 
he would live only a few minutes. His assailant 
sat by his bedside, and, relenting, offered to take 
him anywhere he wanted to go in his carriage. As 
soon as Garrettson could get about, the judge of 
the town, who despised the Methodists, compelled 
him to appear in court; and with a big voice ac- 
cused him of violating the laws. Garrettson plead 
his own case, and was allowed his freedom, con- 
tinuing to preach in the neighborhood. In another 
place he was seized one Sunday by an armed mob 
and thrown into jail, where he was kept for two 
weeks. "I had," he says, "a dirty floor for my 
bed; my saddlebags for my pillow, and two large 
windows open, with a cold east wind blowing upon 
me." 

From the very beginning Methodism was out- 
spoken on the questions of slavery and intemper- 
ance, and her preachers never feared to attack any 
sin, no matter how common the evil. There were so 



EARLY AMERICAN METHODISM 59 



many great men in these early days that nothing 
Avould be more interesting than to take a hundred 
of them and study their biographies. But we will 
simply mention a few in passing. Among them was 
Jesse Lee, the preacher who carried Methodism into 
Boston, preaching from the top of a table on Bos- 
ton Common. Lorenzo Dow preached in the North 
New England States. Boehm and Gruber did a 
splendid work among the Germans in Pennsyl- 
vania, resulting in the organization of the Albright 
Methodists, who afterward became the Evangelical 
Church. 

Richmond Nolley gave his life for the conver- 
sion of men in the Southern Mississippi Valley, and 
Peter Cartwright is the hero of Illinois Meth- 
odism. Those were days of great camp-meeting 
gatherings. In one place, where such a meeting 
was in session, a mob gathered with loaded whips 
to fight the preachers and disperse the crowd. The 
famous Peter Cartwright* was the preacher. He 
called from the pulpit to two magistrates in the 
congregation to arrest the leader ; but they said it 
was impossible, and Cartwright stepped down to 
do it himself. The leaders of the mob struck at 
him, and immediately the greatest tumult followed. 
Cartwright seized one after another of the leading 
rioters, including a drunken magistrate, who had 
taken sides with them. The ringleader of the mob 
coming up, Cartwright struck him a blow on the 



♦History of American Methodism.— Stevens. 



60 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



ear which felled him to the earth. His friends, 
having gathered their wits by this time, rushed by 
hundreds on the mob, knocking them down in every 
direction. Thirty prisoners were taken, who, when 
brought into court, were fined to the limit of the 
law. The drunken magistrate was fined w 7 ith the 
others, and was thrown out of office. None of the 
ministers felt like preaching after this event, and 
when they went to Peter Cartwrigiit, he said: "I 
feel a clear conscience, for under the necessity of 
the circumstances we have done right; and I ask 
you to let me preach." Consent was very readily 
given, for there was no other man on the ground 
who could preach under those circumstances. Cart- 
wright says: "The encampment was lighted up; 
the trumpet blown; I rose in the stand, and re- 
quired every soul to leave the tents and come into 
the congregation. There was a general rush to the 
stand. I requested the brethren, if they ever 
prayed in their lives, to pray now. My voice w r as 
strong and clear, and my preaching was more of 
an exhortation and encouragement than anything 
else. My text was, 'The Gates of Hell Shall Not 
Prevail.' In about thirty minutes the power of 
God fell on the congregation in such a manner as 
is seldom seen. The people fell in every direction, 
right and left, front and rear. It was supposed 
that not less than three hundred fell like dead men 
in battle, and there was no need of calling mourn- 
ers, for they were strewed all over the camp ground. 



EARLY AMERICAN METHODISM 61 



Our meeting lasted all night, and Monday and 
Monday night; and when we closed on Tuesday 
there were two hundred who had professed religion, 
and about that number joined the Church." 

Another hero of frontier life was Richmond 
Nolley. Stevens says: "For two years Nolley 
ranged over a vast extent of country, preaching 
continually, and stopping for no obstructions of 
flood or weather. "When his horse could not go on 
he shouldered his saddlebags and pressed forward 
on foot. "When Indian hostilities prevailed, and the 
settlers crowded into isolated forts and stockades, 
Nolley sought no shelter, but hastened from post 
to post, instructing and comforting the alarmed 
refugees. It is in this wild country that hap- 
pened the fact, so often cited as an illustra- 
tion of the energy of the primitive Methodist 
ministry: In making the rounds of his field, 
Nolley came to a fresh wagon track. On the 
search for anything that had a soul, he fol- 
lowed it and came upon the emigrant family just 
as it had pitched on the ground of its future home. 
The man was unhitching his team and the wife was 
busy around the fir£. 'What!' exclaimed the set- 
tler, upon hearing the salutation of the visitor, and 
taking a glance at his unmistakable appearance. 
' Have you found me already? Another Methodist 
preacher! I left Virginia to get out of reach of 
them; went to a new settlement in Georgia and 
thought to have a long rest, but they got my wife 



62 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



and daughter into the Church. Then in this late 
purchase I found a piece of good land and was sure 
I would have some peace from the preachers, and 
here is one before my wagon is unloaded!' Nol- 
ley gave him small comfort: ' My friend, if you go 
to heaven, you will find Methodist preachers there ; 
if to hell, I'm afraid you'll find some there; and 
you see,' he said, 'how it is in this world; so you 
had better make terms with us and be at peace.' 
Kolley 's hardships told on him, so that he appeared 
at the next Conference a sickly-looking, worn-out 
man, yet it was thought necessary to send him 
back to the same rugged field. He went without 
a murmur. He was accompanied on his return by 
Griffen, his presiding elder. They crossed the Mis- 
sissippi and a vast swamp. 'The difficulties we 
had to encounter,' says Griffin, 'were almost in- 
credible.' Coming to a place where they must 
separate, after embracing each other, with mutual 
benedictions they parted. It was in the latter part 
of November, and a cold, dark, rainy day. Across 
his path there lay a large swamp and deep creeks, 
and not a single white man was to be found between 
him and the place of his destination. Alone he trav- 
eled on until evening, when he found himself at 
an Indian village. Having to cross a creek before 
night, and fearing from the rains that it would be 
swollen, he employed an Indian to go with him. 
When he arrived on its banks he found it, as he 
anticipated, a full and angry flood, rushing tumul- 
tuously along. There was no alternative but to 



EARLY AMERICAN METHODISM 63 



cross or remain with the savages, so he chose the 
former; and leaving his valise, saddlebags, and a 
parcel of books with the Indian, he urged his horse 
into the stream. No sooner did his charger strike 
the current than he was beaten down with the 
fxood. The animal battled courageously with the 
stream, but before the other shore was reached, 
horse and rider were far below the landing place 
of the ford; and, the banks being high, it was im- 
possible for the horse to gain a foothold, or make 
the ascent of the other shore. In the struggle to 
do so the rider was thrown ; and grasping the limb 
of a tree which extended over the stream, he 
reached the bank. The horse swam back to the 
side of the stream whence he had started. The 
missionary directed the Indian to keep his horse 
till morning; and he would walk to the nearest 
house, which was distant about two miles. He 
traveled through the woods about one mile, cold 
and weary. Unable to proceed any further, and 
conscious perhaps that his work was done, and that 
he had fulfilled the errand of his Master, he fell 
upon his knees and commended his soul to God. 
There in that wild wood of the far West, alone with 
his God and the ministering spirits that encamp 
around the saints, Richmond Nolley, the young mis- 
sionary, closed his eyes on earth to open them in 
Heaven. When he was found he was lying ex- 
tended upon the wet leaves, his left hand upon his 
breast and the other lying by his side. The eyes 
were closed, and the gentle spirit left a smile upon 



64 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



his cheek ere it passed away to that bright and 
beautiful world, where the wicked cease to trouble 
and the weary are at rest. His knees were muddy, 
and there were prints of them in the ground, show- 
ing that he had been praying in this last scene 
of his mortal life. He had evidently resigned him- 
self calmly to his fate, selecting a place to die on, 
beneath a clump of pines, composing his limbs and 
closing his eyes. A traveler found him the next 
day, bore him to the nearest house, and on Sunday 
he was buried. He was but thirty years old, tall, 
slender, emaciated by labors and fastings; had 
dark, radiant eyes, and a countenance full of de- 
termination and saintliness ; was never married ; 
was always busy, rising at four o'clock at all times 
and places; was a man of no extraordinary intel- 
lectual powers, but of extraordinary courage, self- 
denial, and labor; and yet achieved more perhaps 
by his death than by his life, for his name is con- 
secrated in the heart of the Church as that of a 
martyr. ' ' 

It is no wonder that with such devoted preachers 
the Methodist Church has become the great force 
that it is to-day. "We ought not to close this chap- 
ter without speaking of two others — Bishop As- 
bury and James McCarty. During his lifetime 
Bishop Asbury did the work of a dozen ordinary 
men. He did what he thought was his duty, re- 
gardless of persecution, roads, weather, or any 
other obstacle. His journeys on horseback over 
the worst roads, thirty, forty, fifty miles a day, 



EARLY AMERICAN METHODISM 65 



with almost daily preaching, class leading, visits 
from house to house, frequent and hard sessions 
of Conferences, the correspondence of a thousand 
letters yearly, for most of the year the poorest 
fare of log cabins, with no other luxury than tea, 
which he always carried with him, and often pre- 
pared himself beneath a tree — these hardships 
brought on almost continual sickness — chills, fe- 
vers, and rheumatism. 

James McCarty was an Irishman from the 
United States, who went into Canada to preach; 
holding meetings in log cabins, or wherever he 
could get a hearing. His success made the lead- 
ing Churchmen angry, and a sheriff, a captain of 
militia, and an engineer combined to rid the coun- 
try of his zealous labors. He was suddenly seized, 
thrust into a boat, and conveyed by four French- 
men, hired for the purpose, down the St. Lawrence 
to the rapids near Cornwall. He was landed on 
one of the numerous solitary islands of that part of 
the stream, and may have perished by starvation, 
or have been drowned in attempting to reach the 
main shore, but his fate has never been disclosed. 

We who are in the Church to-day would not 
be enjoying the privileges of the gospel, nor would 
our country have reached its present state of civil- 
ization had it not been for the heroic efforts of 
these unselfish men. The least that we can do is 
to consecrate ourselves completely to God's work, 
and carry on what they started. 
5 



68 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Division I. 
ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 



J. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. 

1. There is but one living and true God, ever- 
lasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, 
wisdom, and goodness ; the Maker and Preserver of 
all things, visible and invisible. And in the unity 
of this Godhead there are three persons, of one sub- 
stance, power, and eternity— the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. 

II. Of the Word, or Son of God, who was made 
very Man. 

2. The Son, who is the Word of the Father, 
the very and eternal God, of one substance with 
the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the 
blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect na- 
tures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, 
were joined together in one person, never to be 
divided ; whereof is one Christ, very God and very 
Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and 
buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a 
sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for 
the actual sins of men. 

III. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 

3. Christ did truly rise again from the dead, 
and took again His body, with all things apper- 
taining to the perfection of man's nature, where- 
with He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth 
until He return to judge all men at the last day. 



METHODIST DOCTRINES 69 



IV. Of the Holy Ghost. 

TT 4. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the 
Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, 
and glory with the Father and the Son, very and 
eternal God. 

V. The Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for 
Salvation. 

ft 5. The Holy Scriptures contain all things nec- 
essary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read 
therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be re- 
quired of any man that it should be believed as an 
article of faith, or be thought "requisite or necessary 
to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scriptures 
we do understand those canonical books of the Old 
and New Testament of whose authority was never 
any doubt in the Church. The names of the canon- 
ical books are: 

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteron- 
omy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the First Book of Sam- 
uel, the Second Book of Samuel, the First Book of 
Kings, the Second Book of Kings, the First Book 
of Chronicles, the Second Book of Chronicles, the 
Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah, the Book of 
Esther, the Book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Cantica or Song of 
Solomon, Four Prophets the Greater, Twelve 
Prophets the Less. 

All the books of the New Testament, as they are 
commonly received, we do receive and account ca- 
nonical. 

VI. Of the Old Testament. 

ft 6. The Old Testament is not contrary to the 
New ; for both in the Old and New Testament ever- 
lasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is 



70 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



the only Mediator between God and man, being 
both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be 
heard who feign that the old fathers did look only 
for transitory promises. Although the law given 
from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and 
rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil 
precepts thereof of necessity be received in any 
commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian 
whatsoever is free from the obedience of the com- 
mandments which are called moral. 

VII. Of Original or Birth Sin. 

jf 7. Original sin standeth not in the following 
of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it 
is the corruption of the nature of every man, that 
naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original right- 
eousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, 
and that continually. 

VIII. Of Free Will. 
If 8. The condition of man after the fall of 
Adam is such that he can not turn and prepare 
himself, by his own natural strength and works, 
to faith, and calling upon God ; wherefore we have 
no power to do good works, pleasant and accept- 
able to God, without the grace of God by Christ 
preventing us, that we may have a good will, and 
working with us, when we have that good will. 

IX. Of the Justification of Man. 

9. We are accounted righteous before God only 
for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
by faith, and not for our own works or deservings, 
Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a 
most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. 



METHODIST DOCTRINES 



21 



X. Of Good Works. 

If 10. Although good works, which are the fruits 
of faith, and follow after justification, can not put 
away our sins, and endure the severity of God's 
judgment, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to 
God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively 
faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be 
as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its 
fruit. 

XL Of Works of Supererogation. 

11. Voluntary works — besides, over, and above 
God's commandments — which are called works of 
supererogation, can not be taught without arro- 
gancy and impiety. For by them men do declare 
that they do not only render unto God as much as 
they are bound to do, but that they do more for 
His sake than of bound en duty is required ; whereas 
Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that 
is commanded of you, say, We are unprofitable 
servants. 

XII. Of Sin after Justification. 

If 12. Not every sin willingly committed after 
justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and 
unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance 
is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after 
justification : After we have received the Holy 
Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall 
into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and 
amend our lives. And therefore they are to be 
condemned who say they can no more sin as long 
as they live here ; or deny the place of forgiveness 
to such as truly repent. 



72 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



XIII. Of the Church. 

ft 13. The visible Church of Christ is a congre- 
gation of faithful men in which the pure Word of 
God is preached, and the Sacraments duly admin- 
istered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those 
things that of necessity are requisite to the same. 

XIV. Of Purgatory. 

ft 14. The Romish doctrine concerning purga- 
tory, pardon, worshiping and adoration, as well 
of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, 
is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded 
upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to 
the "Word of God. 

XV. Of Speaking in the Congregation in such a 
Tongue as the People Understand. 

ft 15. It is a thing plainly repugnant to the 
Word of God, and the custom of the primitive 
Church, to have public prayer in the Church, or 
to administer the Sacraments, in a tongue not un- 
derstood by the people. 

XVI. Of the Sacraments. 

ft 16. Sacraments ordained of Christ are not 
only badges or tokens of Christian men's profes- 
sion, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and 
God's good-will toward us, by the which He doth 
work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, 
but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in Him. 

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ 
our Lord in the Gospel ; that is to say, Baptism and 
the Supper of the Lord. 

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is 
to say, confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, 



METHODIST DOCTRINES 73 



and extreme unction, are not to be counted for 
Sacraments of the Gospel ; being such as have partly 
grown out of the corrupt following of the Apostles, 
and partly are states of life allowed in the Scrip- 
tures, but yet have not the like nature of Baptism 
and the Lord's Supper, because they have not any 
visible sign or ceremony ordained of God. 

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to 
be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that 
we should duly use them. And in such only as 
worthily receive the same they have a wholesome 
effect or operation : but they that receive them un- 
worthily, purchase to themselves condemnation, as 
Saint Paul saith, 1 Cor. 11 : 29. 

XVII. Of Baptism. 
17. Baptism is not only a sign of profession 
and mark of difference whereby Christians are 
distinguished from others that are not baptized; 
but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new 
birth. The baptism of young children is to be re- 
tained in the Church. 

XV 111. Of the Lord's Supper. 

ft 18. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign 
of the love that Christians ought to have among 
themselves one to another, but rather is a Sacra- 
ment of our redemption by Christ's death; inso- 
much that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with 
faith receive the same, the bread which we break is 
a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the 
cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. 

Transubstantiation, or the change of the sub- 
stance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, 
can not be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant 
to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the 



74 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to 
many superstitions. 

The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten 
in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual 

manner. And Ihe meanS whereby the body of 

Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith, 
The Sacramenl of the Lord's Supper was not 

by Christ's Ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted 
Up, Or worshiped. 

XIX. Of both Kinds. 

II 19. The Cup of ihe Lord is not to be denied 
to ihe Lay People; Tor both the parts of the Lord's 
Supper, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, 

OUght to be administered to all Christians alike. 

AW. Of the one Oblation of Christ, finished upon 
the Cross, 

fl20. The offering of Christ, once made, is that 
perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction 
for all the sins of the whole world, both original 

and actual; and there is none other satisfaction tor 

sin but that alone, Wherefore the sacrifice of 

masses, in the which it is eommonly said that, the 

priest doth offer Christ Tor the quick and the dead, 

to have remission of pam or guilt, is a blasphemous 
fable and dangerous deceit. 

XXI. Of the Marriage of ministers. 

21. The Ministers of Christ are not com- 
manded by God's law either to vow the estate of 
single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore 

it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, 

to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge 
the same to serve best to godliness. 



METHODIST DOCTRINES 75 



XXII. Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches. 

ft 22. It is not necessary that rites and cere- 
monies should in all places be the same, or exactly 
alike ; for they have been always different, and may 
be changed according to the diversity of countries, 
times, and men's manners, so that nothing be or- 
dained against God's Word. Whosoever, through 
his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth 
openly break the rites and ceremonies of the Church 
to which he belongs, which are not repugnant to 
the Word of God, and are ordained and approved 
by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly 
(that others may fear to do the like), as one that 
offendeth against the common order of the Church, 
and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren. 

Every particular Church may ordain, change, 
or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things 
may be done to edification. 

XXIII. Of the Etders of the United States of 
America. 

23. The President, the Congress, the General 
Assemblies, the Governors, and the Councils of 
State, as the Delegates of the People, are the Rulers 
of the United States of America, according to the 
division of power made to them by the Constitution 
of the United States, and by the Constitutions of 
their respective States. And the said States are a 
sovereign and independent Nation, and ought not 
to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. 5 * 

* As far as it respects civil affairs we believe it trie duty of 
Christians, and especially of all Christian Ministers to be subject 
to the supreme authority of the country where they may reside, 
and to use all laudable means to enjoin obedience to the powers 
that be; and therefore it is expected that ail our Preachers and 
People, who mav be under the British or any other Government, 
will behave themselves as peaceable and orderly subjects. 



16 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



XXIV. Of Christian Men's Goods. 

24. The riches and goods of Christians are 
not common, as touching the right, title, and pos- 
session of the same, as some do falsely boast. Not- 
withstanding, every man ought, of such things as 
he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, 
according to his ability. 

XXV. Of a Christian Man's Oath. 

25. As we confess that vain and rash swear- 
ing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus 
Christ and James His apostle; so we judge that the 
Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man 
may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a 
cause of faith and charity, so it be done according 
to the Prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and 
truth. 



THE TEN DOCTRINES OP GRACE 

By Bishop Vincent. 
(To be memorized). 

I. I believe that all men are sinners. 

II. I believe that God the Father loves all men 
and hates all sin. 

III. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men 
to make possible their salvation from sin, and to 
make sure the salvation of all who believe in Him. 

IV. I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to 
all men to enlighten and to incline them to repent 
of their sins and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

V. I believe that all who repent of their sins 
and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the 
forgiveness of sin. (This is justification.) 



METHODIST DOCTRINES 77 



VI. I believe that all who receive the forgive- 
ness of sin are at the same time made new creatures 
in Christ Jesus. (This is regeneration.) 

VII. I believe that all who are made new crea- 
tures in Christ Jesus are accepted as the children 
of God. (This is adoption.) 

VIII. I believe that all who are accepted as the 
children of God may receive the inward assurance 
of the Holy Spirit to that fact. (This is the wit- 
ness of the Spirit.) 

IX. I believe that all who truly desire to seek 
it may love God with all their heart and soul, mind 
and strength, and their neighbors as themselves. 
(This is entire sanctification.) 

X. I believe that all who persevere to the end, 
and only those, shall be saved in heaven forever. 
(This is the true final perseverance.) 



CHAPTER IX 



METHODIST RULES 

There are some things that men can not do 
and continue to be Methodists, and it is very im- 
portant that the Church carefully seeks to keep 
itself pure by dropping from membership those 
whose lives are inconsistent. If this had always 
been done by other branches of the Christian 
Church there would be fewer denominations, and 
better Christians. All will agree that the General 
Rules of the Methodist Church are both sensible 
and broad. We copy the following from the Meth- 
odist Discipline: 

There is only one condition previously required 
of those who desire admission into these Societies — 
"a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to 
be saved from their sins." But wherever this 
is really fixed in the soul it will be shown by its 
fruits. 

It is therefore expected of all who continue 
therein that they shall continue to evidence their 
desire of salvation, 

First — By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of 
78 




HOFFMAN. 

JESUS. 



METHODIST RULES 



79 



every kind, especially that which is most generally 
practiced; such as, 

The taking of the name of God in vain. 

The profaning the day of the Lord, either by 
doing ordinary work therein or by buying or selling, 

Drunkenness, buying, or selling spirituous liq- 
uors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme 
necessity. 

Slaveholding ; buying or selling slaves. 

Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going 
to law with brother ; returning evil for evil, or rail- 
ing for railing; the using many words in buying 
or selling. 

The buying or selling goods that have not paid 
the duty. 

The giving or taking things on usury; that is, 
unlawful interest. 

Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; par- 
ticularly speaking evil of magistrates or of 
ministers. 

Doing to others as we would not they should 
do unto us. 

Doing what we know is not for the glory of 
God, as: 

The putting on of gold and costly apparel. 

The taking such diversions as can not be used 
in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

The singing those songs, or reading those books, 
which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God. 

Softness and needless self-indulgence. 

Laying up treasure upon earth. 



80 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Borrowing without a probability of paying; or 
taking up goods without a probability of paying 
for them. 

It is expected of all who continue in these so- 
cieties that they shall continue to evidence their 
desire of salvation, 

Second — By doing good ; by being in every kind 
merciful after their power; as they have oppor- 
tunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as 
far as possible, to all men: 

To their bodies, of the ability which God giv- 
eth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the 
naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick 
or in prison. 

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or ex- 
horting all w r e have any intercourse with; tramp- 
ling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine, that ' 1 we 
are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it. ' ' 

By doing good, especially to them that are of the 
household of faith or groaning so to be; employ- 
ing them preferably to pthers; buying one of an- 
other ; helping each other in business, and so much 
the more because the world will love its own and 
them only. 

By all possible diligence and frugality, that the 
Gospel be not blamed. 

By running with patience the race which is set 
before them, denying themselves, and taking up 
their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach 
of Christ, to be as the filth and off-scouring of the 



METHODIST RULES 



81 



world; and looking that men should say all man- 
ner of evil of them falsely, for the Lord's sake. 

It is expected of all who desire to continue in 
these societies .that they shall continue to evidence 
their desire of salvation, 

Third — By attending upon all the ordinances of 
God ; such are : 

The public worship of God. 
The ministry of the "Word, either read or ex- 
pounded. 

The Supper of the Lord. 
Family and private prayer. 
Searching the Scriptures. 
Fasting or abstinence. 

These are the General Rules of our societies; 
all which we are taught of God to observe, even 
in His written Word, which is the only rule, and 
the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice. 
And all these we know His Spirit writes on truly 
awakened hearts. If there be any among us who 
observes them not, who habitually breaks any of 
them, let it be known unto them who watch over 
that soul as they who must give an account. "We 
will admonish him of the error of his ways. We 
will bear wdth him for a season. But if then he 
repent not, he hath no more place among us. We 
have delivered our own souls. 

Special Rules 
The substance of the rule on Temperance is: 
We regard voluntary total abstinence from all 
6 



82 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



intoxicants as the true ground of personal tem- 
perance, and complete legal prohibition of the liq- 
uor traffic as the duty of civil government. 

Dress. 

Let all our people be exhorted to conform to 
the spirit of the apostolic precept, not to adorn 
themselves "with gold, or pearls, or costly array.' 9 
(1 Tim. 2:9.) 

Marriage. 

We do not prohibit our people from marrying 
persons who are not of our Church, provided such 
persons have the form and are seeking the power 
of godliness; but we are determined to discourage 
their marrying persons who do not come up to 
this description. Many of our members have mar- 
ried unawakened persons. This has produced bad 
effects ; they have been either hindered for life, or 
have turned back to perdition. 

Divorce. 

No divorce, except for adultery, shall be re- 
garded by the Church as lawful; and no minister 
shall solemnize marriage in any case where there is 
a divorced husband or wife living; but this rule 
shall not apply to the innocent party to a divorce 
case for the cause of adultery, nor to divorced 
parties seeking to be reunited in marriage. 



METHODIST RULES 



83 



Amusements. 

. "We look with deep concern on the 
great increase of amusements, and on the general 
prevalence of harmful amusements, and lift up a 
solemn note of warning and entreaty, particularly 
against theater-going, dancing, and such games of 
chance as are frequently associated with gambling ; 
all of which have been found to be antagonistic 
to vital piety, promotive of worldliness, and espe- 
cially pernicious to youth. 



CHAPTER X 



METHODIST GOVERNMENT 

The governing body of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is the General Conference. This meets 
every four years, and is made up of an equal num- 
ber of preachers and laymen, based on a represen- 
tation of one preacher for every forty-five. This 
body elects the bishops and appoints committees 
to carry on the work of the Church. 

The Annual Conference meets every year. Con- 
ferences are made up of all of the pastors of the 
churches within certain boundaries, which are fixed 
by the General Conference. They range in mem- 
bership all the way from 4 to 369. There are 
now 145 such Conferences in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. All preachers are required to at- 
tend the Annual Conference, and it is assumed 
that during the meeting of the Conference its 
preachers are without churches, and subject to the 
appointment of the bishop for the next year. Be- 
sides hearing reports, and attending to the benevo- 
lences and the various educational and charitable 
institutions within its boundaries, the Annual Con- 

84 



METHODIST GOVERNMENT 85 



ference examines candidates for the ministry, 
attends to their ordination, and checks up the char- 
acter of all its preachers, calling each by name. 

The Quarterly Conference is made up of the 
pastor, the stewards, the trustees, the local 
preachers, exhorters, class leaders, deaconesses, 
Sunday-school and Junior League superintendents, 
the Epworth League, Methodist Brotherhood, and 
Ladies' Aid presidents, who are members of the 
Church, and the district superintendent. The 
Quarterly Conference may be held every three 
months or every six months, at the discretion of 
the district superintendent. The Quarterly Con- 
ference hears reports from the various organiza- 
tions in the local church, licenses local preachers, 
passes on the character of deaconesses, confirms the 
election of the superintendents of the various de- 
partments of Church work, and elects stewards and 
sometimes trustees, besides attending to all of the 
important business affairs of the Church. As su- 
preme authority in the local church, the Quarterly 
Conference has general oversight of all organiza- 
tions. 

The Official Board is made up of the same mem- 
bers as the Quarterly Conference. It is a sort of 
Quarterly Conference Committee, and is required 
to submit its Minutes for the annual approval of 
the Quarterly Conference. 



86 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Trials. 

The Discipline suggests the following heads un- 
der which charges are to be preferred for the trial 
of an accused Church member: 

I. Immoral conduct. 

II. Imprudent and unchristian conduct. 

III. Neglect of the means of grace. 

IV. Causing dissension. 

V. Disagreement in business, and refusing 
arbitration. 

VI. Insolvency. 

A Church member who has done wrong is gen- 
erally warned by the pastor and a few chosen offi- 
cials, but sometimes an immediate trial is required. 
In this case a committee of not less than five mem- 
bers of the Church, who are not members of the 
Quarterly Conference, are chosen by the pastor, 
either from his own church or from any church 
in the district. The preacher presides at the trial, 
and if the accused member is found guilty, either 
suspension or expulsion follows, according to the 
nature of the offense. The accused has the privi- 
lege of appealing his case to the Quarterly Con- 
ference, and from the Quarterly Conference to a 
District Court made up of representatives from the 
various charges. 

A pastor is tried by the Annual Conference, 
either by the entire Conference or by a committee 
of preachers. 

A local preacher is tried by a committee of 



METHODIST GOVERNMENT 87 



local preachers appointed by the pastor, A bishop 
is tried by the General Conference. 

Property. 

All Methodist Church property is owned by the 
whole Methodist Episcopal Church, and not by the 
local congregation. All church buildings are merely 
held in trust by local trustees, being subject en- 
tirely to the appointment of the bishop. As long 
as a pastor is supported by the bishop he has the 
privilege of the pulpit, even against the unanimous 
wish of his congregation. The trustees are ex- 
pected to care for church and parsonage prop- 
erty, real estate, buildings, furniture, song books, 
etc. The Board of Stewards is expected to look 
after the salaries of the pastor, the district superin- 
tendent, and the bishop, and to care for the poor 
of the parish. In most churches they also look 
after the general current expenses. 

Christian Workers. 

An exhorter is a layman who, upon recommen- 
dation of the class of which he is a member, is 
given a license signed by the pastor. His duties 
are to hold meetings for prayer and exhortation 
wherever opportunity is afforded, under the di- 
rection of the pastor, and to report to the Quar- 
terly Conference. 

A deaconess must be recommended by the Quar- 
terly Conference of the church of which she is a 



88 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



member. She must be unmarried and over twenty- 
three years of age, and must furnish a certificate 
of good health. After two years of probationary 
service she is licensed by the Conference Board. 
She does not promise perpetual service to the 
Church, but is at liberty to retire at any time. 
It is her duty to minister to the poor, care for the 
sick, provide for the orphans ;( comfort the sorrow- 
ing, seek the wandering, save the sinning, and, giv- 
ing up all other pursuits, devote herself to these 
and other forms of Christian service. 

A local preacher is licensed by the district su- 
perintendent upon the recommendation of the Quar- 
terly Conference. It is his duty to preach, conduct 
funerals, and assist in such other work as the pastor 
may suggest. 

A traveling preacher is recommended by his 
Quarterly Conference and elected for two years' 
trial by the Annual Conference. After two years 
he is elected into full membership in the Annual 
Conference and ordained as a deacon. After two 
years more of service he is ordained as an elder. 
The district superintendent is a traveling preacher, 
who is appointed by the bishop for a term of six 
years, to look after the churches of a district. The 
bishop is a traveling preacher, who is elected for 
life as one of the general superintendents of the 
Church, and consecrated for the office of bishop. 

A supernumerary minister is one who, because 
of poor health or other equally sufficient reason, 



METHODIST GOVERNMENT 89 



is temporarily unable to perform full work. A 
superannuated preacher is one who is honorably 
discharged, because of age or health, from the 
further duties of the ministry. He has a claim 
upon the Church for his support. 



CHAPTER XI 



METHODIST INSTITUTIONS AND 
BENEVOLENCES 



The Book Concern. 

THIS is the name given to the publishing houses 
of the Methodist Church. The two chief centers 
are in New York and Cincinnati, but there are 
branch stores and offices in several other cities. 
Our Book Concern does a business of two and a 
half million dollars a year, realizing a profit of 
a hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which is 
paid to the Superannuated Preachers' Fund. We 
have the largest religious publishing house in the 
world. Besides publishing various books it also 
publishes our Church Advocates, Sunday-school 
supplies, and Epworth League literature. 

The Board op Foreign Missions. 
The headquarters of this board are in New 
York City. As its name implies, it has in charge 
the work of the Church in foreign lands. It is 
managed by the general superintendent and mis- 
sionary bishop, together with thirty-two laymen 

90 




From " Hurst's History of Methodism." By Permission. 

Store and Factory, 1870-1893. 

Depository of the New York House Depositor)- of Cincinnati House 

at^Pittsburg, 1894. at Chicago, erected 1899. 

Cincinnati Buildings as Enlarged, 1894. 



METHODIST INSTITUTIONS 91 



and thirty-two ministers. An official paper, 
World-Wide Missions, is published monthly. This 
board raises more than one million dollars a year, 
supporting missionaries who preach in one hun- 
dred different languages in thirty-four countries 
scattered throughout the world. Truly, the saying 
of John Wesley, ' 6 The world is my parish," char- 
acterizes the Methodist Church to-day. 

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. 

This is an organization of women for the pur- 
pose of working with women in foreign lands. This 
society works in harmony with the Board of For- 
eign Missions, and under its supervision. It has 
branches in all of our larger churches, and raises 
nearly seven hundred thousand dollars a year. 

Board of Home Missions and Church Extension. 

It is the work of this organization to represent 
the Church in the United States and its posses- 
sions. Its main office is in the city of Philadelphia. 
The board consists of thirty-two ministers and 
thirty-five laymen, appointed by the General Con- 
ference. Since its work began forty-four years ago, 
the Church Extension Society has aided 16,000 
churches. It helps to build new church buildings 
by gifts of money, and by loans, and it supports 
missionaries in needy fields. Its motto is, "America 
for Christ.' ? It publishes a monthly paper called 



92 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



The Christian Republic. In the year 1908 it raised 
nearly a million dollars, and like the Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society, has set its standard at one dollar 
per member. 

The Woman 's Home Missionary Society. 

It is the work of this organization to assist in 
missionary efforts in the home field, co-operating 
with the General Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension. More than one hundred mis- 
sionaries and two hundred and eighty deaconesses 
are working under this organization. About seven 
hundred thousand dollars is raised annually. It 
works among immigrants, in needy portions of our 
large cities, on the frontier, with prisoners, or wher- 
ever the need is most pressing. 

Board of Education. 

It is the purpose of this board to promote the 
educational work of the Church. Besides the reg- 
ular collection taken under the direction of this 
board, a special collection is taken on Children's 
Day, to be used as a loan fund to aid worthy 
students. Since its organization the board has 
aided seventeen thousand students. Our Church 
owns one hundred and seventy colleges and uni- 
versities, with four thousand professors and teach- 
ers, sixty thousand students, and property worth 
nearly fifty million dollars. 



METHODIST INSTITUTIONS 93 



Board of Sunday-schools. 
Our Board of Sunday-schools has supervision of 
thirty-five thousand schools, with about four mil- 
lion in attendance. This organization establishes 
new schools in needy places, and helps schools that 
could not otherwise exist, with literature and 
money. It also does a large work in raising the 
ideals of Sunday-school work through literature, 
conventions, and addresses. 

Board of Conference Claimants. 
It is the work of this body to care for worn- 
out ministers, and it is the hope that in the very 
near future sick and worn-out preachers and their 
families may be as well cared for as employees are 
in many secular organizations having a regular pen- 
sion system. 

Freedmen's Aid Societt. 
It is the work of this organization to establish 
and maintain institutions for Christian education 
among the colored people in the Southern States 
and elsewhere. We have at present twenty-four 
schools among our colored people, worth about a 
million and a half dollars. In these schools there 
are more than eight thousand students. This So- 
ciety has had a great influence for good among 
the colored people of the South. In the year 1908 
$363,000 was raised for this work, an average of 
about a thousand dollars a day. 



94 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



The Epworth League. 
This organization works with Methodist young 
people, and we have just about as many Epworth 
Leagues as there are churches, and half as many 
Junior Leagues. The Epworth League was organ- 
ized in Cleveland, Ohio, May 15, 1889. The Ep- 
worth Herald is the official paper. 

The Methodist Brotherhood. 
This organization is a union of the Brother- 
hood of St. Paul and the Wesley Brotherhood, and 
includes all Methodist men's organizations. 

City Evangelization. 
The National City Evangelization Union is an 
organization composed of representatives of city 
missionary societies throughout the country. Its 
aim is to promote the work of the Church in the 
city. 

Church Temperance Society. 
It is the aim of this society to oppose the or- 
ganized liquor traffic by promoting total abstinence 
and by working for laws prohibiting the traffic in 
alcoholic liquor. 

The Deaconess Movement. 
The Discipline says: "A deaconess is a woman 
who has been led by the Spirit and the providence 
of God to forego all other pursuits in life that she 



METHODIST INSTITUTIONS 95 



may devote herself wholly to the Christlike service 
of doing good ; and having received this divine call, 
has been tested and trained during a probation of 
at least two years, and after such preparation has 
been approved by the Church and solemnly set 
apart to this vocation in the Church. No vow of 
perpetual service is required of the deaconess." 
She may withdraw at any time, but while she works 
she shall be entitled to a suitable support by the 
Church. Her work is to act as pastor's assistant, 
visiting from house to house, assisting in evangel- 
istic work, conducting kindergartens and schools, 
visiting prisons; conducting orphanages, hospitals, 
and other institutions of mercy ; nursing among 
the sick poor, etc. There are now more than fifteen 
hundred deaconesses working in the Methodist 
Church. 

The American Bible Society. 

This society belongs to all of the Protestant 
Churches. The Bible has already been translated 
into 102 different languages, and portions of it 
into more than five hundred languages and dialects, 
and no one denomination could furnish either the 
scholarship or the money necessary for this work. 
Hence, the American Bible Society represents all 
denominations, giving itself not only to the transla- 
tion of the Bible, but to printing the Scriptures and 
selling and giving them away. Missionaries are 
employed to go from house to house, and often- 



96 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



times as a result of their work Sunday-schools and 
churches are organized, and these are given over 
to the care of some denomination. Since its begin- 
ning this society has published eighty-three million 
volumes. In the year 1908 about two million copies 
were published. 

Besides the various charitable organizations 
mentioned, our Church has extensive hospitals, or- 
phanages, old people's homes, and other institu- 
tions, ministering to practically every form of 
human need in various parts of the world. 



CHAPTER XII. 



METHODIST HYMNS 

THERE is probably nothing that has done more 
to keep men and women true to the faith of 
the Church than its hymns. Heathen religions 
have no hymns of praise like ours, for such songs 
of joy are peculiar to those who worship the true 
God. One could easily get the entire plan of sal- 
vation and all of the essential doctrines of the 
Church through the songs that are sung each Sab- 
bath. Next to the Bible, there is no other source 
of inspiration equal to the hymn-book. It is no 
wonder that our Church made the great advance 
that it did under the leadership of the greatest 
hymn- writer that the world has ever known, Charles 
Wesley. His hymns are joyous with the bright 
theology of Methodism, the theology of "full sal- 
vation, free salvation, and felt salvation." "We 
will consider some of the hymns found in the re- 
vised Methodist Hymnal. 

Hymn No. 1: 

O, for a thousand tongues to sing 

My great Redeemer's praise; 
The glories of my God and King, 

The triumphs of His grace! 

7 97 



98 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



This hymn was written by Charles Wesley on 
the first anniversary of his conversion. His brother 
John was the organizer of the Church, but Charles 
was the poet of Methodism. He was born in 1707, 
and died in 1788. 

Hymn Number 533 : 

Jesus, the very thought of Thee 

With sweetness fills the breast; 
But sweeter far Thy face to see, 

And in Thy presence rest. 

The broad spirit of Methodism is well illus- 
trated by the great variety of religious denomina- 
tions represented in its hymn-book. This hymn 
was written by Bernard of Clairvaux, a French 
monk, who lived in the year 1100. The Knights 
of the Second Crusade sung this hymn around 
the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 



Hymn Number 537 : 

Jesus, these eyes have never seen 

That radiant form of Thine; 
The veil of sense hangs dark between 

Thy blessed face and mine. 
I see Thee not, I hear Thee not, 

Yet art Thou oft with me; 
And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot 

As where I meet with Thee. 

Reverend Ray Palmer was a Congregationalist 
clergyman, born in Rhode Island in 1808; gradu- 
ating from Yale College in 1830. His most famous 
hymn is 4 4 My faith looks up to Thee" (No. 334). 



CHARLES WESLEY. 



METHODIST HYMNS 



99 



Hymn Number 136: 

The King of ]ove my shepherd is, 

Whose goodness faileth never; 
I nothing lack if 1 am His, 
And He is mine forever. 

Henry W. Baker, the author of this hymn, was 
born in 1821, and died in 1877. He died with the 
last two lines of the third stanza upon his lips: 
Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, 

But yet in love He sought me, 
And on His shoulder gently laid, 
And home, rejoicing, brought me. 



Hymn Number 137 : 

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 

In a believer's ear! 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 

And drives away his fear! 

The author of this hymn, John Newton, was 
born in London, 1725. In his early manhood he 
was a wicked sailor, but he was converted in a 
terrific storm on a voyage home from Africa. He 
became a minister in the Church of England. He 
died at the age of eighty-two. 



Hymn Number 415: 

Faith of our fathers! living still 

In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword: 
O, how our hearts beat high with joy 

Whene'er we hear that glorious word! 
Faith of our fathers! holy faith! 
We will be true to thee till death! 



100 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



This hymn was written by Frederick W. Faber, 
a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He was 
born in England in 1814, and died in 1863. Sev- 
eral of his hymns are in our hymn-book; among 
them, " There 's a wideness in God's mercy," and 
"0 how the thought of God attracts!" 



Hymn Number 128 : 

We may not climb the heavenly steeps 

To bring the Lord Christ down; 
In vain we search the lowest deeps 

For Him no depths can drown. 
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 

A present help is He; 
And faith has still its Olivet, 

And love its Galilee. 

This poem was written by John Greenleaf Whit- 
tier, the Quaker poet, who was born in Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, in 1807, and died in 1892. 



Hymn Number 348: 

Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; 
Take my moments and my days, 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise; 
Take my hands and let them move 
At the impulse of Thy love; 
Take my feet and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for Thee. 

Bishop Warren says : 1 1 This hymn was written 
in the jubilance of feeling that followed the con- 



METHODIST HYMNS 



101 



version of a family of ten, where the author, 
Frances Ridley Havergal, went to spend five days. 
God answered the prayer, 'Lord, give me all this 
house!' She says, 'The last night of my visit I 
was too happy to sleep.' Then she wrote the hymn 
closing, 'Ever, only, all for Thee.' " Frances Rid- 
ley Havergal was one of the most popular hymn- 
writers of recent years. She was born in 1836 and 
died in 1879. 



Hymn Number 141 : 

When I survey the wondrous cross 

On which the Prince of Glory died, 
My richest gain L count but loss, 

And pour contempt on all my pride. 

This hymn was written by Reverend Isaac 
Watts, who was born in England in 1674. The 
family was poor, and he suffered much in child- 
hood. The father was imprisoned for debt, and 
the mother sat on the prison steps with the baby 
Isaac in her arms. He was a precocious child, 
very quiet and studious. It is said that his father 
objected to his writing verses, and so one time he 
punished him until the youngster cried out, 
''Father, father, mercy take, and I will no more 
verses make!" There are many of his hymns in 
our hymn-book; among them: "Alas, and did my 
Savior bleed;" "Am I a soldier of the cross;" 
"Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove." 



102 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Hymn Number 481 : 

0 Love that will not let me go, 
I rest my weary heart in Thee; 

1 give Thee back the life 1 owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flovr 

May fuller, richer be. 

This hymn was written by Reverend George 
Matheson, a blind preacher in the Church of Eng- 
land. He was born in 1842. 



Hymn Number 463 : 

Jesus, Lover of my soul, 

Let me to Thy bosom fly 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high I 
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, 

Till the storm of life be past; 
Safe into the haven guide, 

O receive my soul at last! 

This is another of Charles Wesley's hymns. It 
is probably the most popular hymn in the English 
language. 

4 * There are several stories concerning the origin 
of this hymn. One is that a meeting of the Wesley 
brothers was broken up by a mob. They took 
refuge in a spring house. There the author, in- 
spired by gratitude for their providential escape, 
wrote the hymn with a piece of lead which he 
hammered into a pencil. Another is that the writer 
was one day sitting by an open window, when a 
little bird, pursued by a hawk, flew in and took 
refuge in the poet's bosom. This incident, it is 
said, suggested the hymn. Neither of these stories 



METHODIST HYMNS 



103 



can be verified.' ' We have one hundred and twenty 
of Charles Wesley's hymns in our hymn-book. 

Hymn Number 279 : 

Koek of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee; 

Let the water and the blood, 

From Thy wounded side which flowed, 

Be of sin the double cure, 

Save from wrath and make me pure. 

This hymn was written by Augustus M. Top- 
lady, a clergyman in the Church of England. He 
was born in 1740. He was converted when he was 
sixteen years old, by hearing an illiterate layman 
preach in a barn in Ireland. He was a vigorous 
Calvinist, and opposed strenuously the doctrine of 
free grace (Arminianism) as taught by the Wes- 
leys. ■ 

Hymn Number 315 : 

Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee! 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me; 

Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee! 

This hymn is founded on the story of Jacob's 
journey, as given in Genesis 28:10-19. It was 
written by Mrs. Sarah P. Adams, who was born at 
Cambridge in 1805. She was a member of the Uni- 
tarian Church. 



104 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Hymn Number 180 : 

All hail the power of Jesus' name! 

Let angels prostrate fall; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 

And crown Him Lord of all. 

This hymn was written by Reverend Edward 
Perronet, a friend of John "Wesley, and a preacher 
in one of Lady Huntington's chapels. He was 
born in 1726, and died in 1792. 

Hymn Number 416: 

The Son of God goes forth to war, 

A kingly crown to gain: 
His blood-red banner streams afar; 

Who follows in His train? 
Who best can drink his cup of woe, 

Triumphant over pain, 
Who patient bears his cross below, 

He follows in his train. 

This hymn was written by Bishop Reginald 
Heber, Bishop of Calcutta. He was born in 1783, 
and died in 1826. He also wrote "From Green- 
land's icy mountains' ' and ' 6 Holy, holy, holy." 

Hymn Number 214: 

O, where are kings and empires now, 

Of old that went and came? 
But Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 

A thousand years the same. 

Bishop A. C. Coxe was a bishop of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church. He was born at Menham, 
New Jersey, in 1818. He died in 1896. 



METHODIST HYMNS 



105 



The following are among the best hymns in 
our book. It would be well worth the time and 
effort to memorize one or more of these splendid 
hymns: 

Hymn Number 50. "Abide with Me." 

Reverend Francis Lyte (1793 to 1347), a 
Church of England clergyman. 

Hymn Number 43. "Still, still with Thee." 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Connecticut in 
1812; died, 1696. She was the daughter of a Con- 
gregational clergyman. Dr. Lyman Beecher, and 
sister of Henry "Ward Beecher. 

Hymn Number 101. "A Mighty Fortress is our 
God." 

"The Marseillaise of the Reformation." Writ- 
ten by Martin Luther, who was born in 1483 ; died 
in 1546. 

Hymn Number 104. "The Lord is my Shepherd; 
no want shall I know." 
James Montgomery, son of a Moravian preacher; 
born in Scotland, 1771; died, 1854; author of nine- 
teen of our hymns. 

Hymn Number 106. "O, worship the King." 

Sir Robert Grant, a member of Parliament, af- 
terwards Governor of Bombay. Born in England, 
1785; died, 1838. 

Hymn Number 112. "There 's a song in the air." 
Rev. J. G. Holland, American poet and author. 



106 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Hymn Number 121. " 0 little town of Bethlehem. 9 9 
Bishop Phillips Brooks, an American bishop in 

the Episcopal Church. 

Hymn Number 123. "Silent night." 
Joseph Mohr. 

Hymn Number 135. "Majestic sweetness." 

Rev. Samuel Stennett, English Baptist minister, 

born 1727, died 1795. 

Hymn Number 143. "In the cross of Christ I 
glory." 

Sir John Bowring, a member of the English 
Parliament, born 1792, died 1872. 
Hymn Number 171. "Hail, Thou once despised 
Jesus!" 

John Bakewell, one of John Wesley's lay preach- 
ers, born 1721 ; died at the age of ninety-eight, in 
1819. 

Hymn Number 185. "Holy Ghost, with light di- 
vine." 

Reverend Andrew Reed, an English independent 
clergyman, born 1788, died 1862. 
Hymn Number 282. "0 Jesus, Thou art stand- 
ing." 

Bishop William W. How, Church of England; 
born 1823, died 1897. 

Hymn Number 211. "I was a wandering sheep." 
Hymn Number 304. "I heard the voice of Jesus 
say." 

Dr. Horatius Bonar, one of the founders of the 
Free Church of Scotland; born 1808, died 1889. 



METHODIST HYMNS 



10? 



Hymn Number 349. 1 ' Savior, Thy dying love. ' 9 
Reverend Sylvanus D. Phelps; 1816 to 1895. 

Hymn Number 383. " Onward, Christian soldiers." 

Reverend Sabine Baring Gould, a clergyman of 
the Church of England ; born 1834. 

Hymn Number 411. "0 Master, let me walk with 
Thee." 

Reverend Washington Gladden, Congregational 
clergyman ; 1836. 

Hymn Number 424. "0 for a faith that will not 
shrink!" 

Reverend William Bathurst, a Church of Eng- 
land clergyman; born 1796, died 1877. 

Hymn Number 460. ' ' Lead, Kindly Light. 9 9 

Cardinal John H. Newman, of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, was born in 1801 ; died in 1890. 

Hymn Number 510. "Lord, for to-morrow and its 
needs I do not pray." 
Reverend Ernest R. Wilberforce, 1840. 
Hymn Number 522. "O Thou who driest the 
mourner's tear!" 
Thomas Moore, a poet, born in Dublin in 1779 ; 
died in 1852. 

Hymn Number 524. "My Jesus, as Thou wilt." 

Miss Jane Borthwick, born in 1825. 
Hymn Number 585. "It is not death to die." 

Reverend George W. Bethune, a Reformed 
Dutch clergyman, born 1805, died 1862. This 



108 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



hymn was written by H. A. C. Malan and translated 
by Dr. Bethune. 

Hymn Number 615. 1 1 The Homeland ! 0 the Home- 
land!" 

Reverend H. E. Haweis, 1838-1901. 
Hymn Number 620. 6 6 One sweetly solemn 
thought." 

Miss Phoebe Cary, American poet; born 1824, 
died 1871. 

Hymn Number 653. "The morning light is break- 
ing." 

Our national hymn, "America," was written by 
this same author, Reverend Samuel F. Smith, a 
Baptist clergyman; born 1808, died 1895. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE FAMILY OF METHODISTS 

THERE are twenty-seven different branches of 
the Methodist Church. We have already seen how 
the American Church came to be separated from 
the original mother Church in England, and in this 
chapter we will consider some of the reasons for 
the formation of other branches. 

Wesleyan Methodist Church. 
This is the original mother Church, the organi- 
zation that John Wesley founded, and from which 
all other branches of Methodism have sprung. It is 
the largest body of Methodists in Great Britain. 
It has very few organizations in the United States. 
At John Wesley's death he provided that the 
Church should be controlled by one hundred 
preachers, called "the legal one hundred." The 
successors of these, together with other ministers 
and laymen, make up the two branches of the Wes- 
ley an Methodist Conference, and control the affairs 
of the Church, meeting annually. They have no 
bishops, but a Conference president is elected once 
a year; also a district chairman, who corresponds 
to our district superintendent. 

109 



110 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



The Calvinistic Methodists. 
In the early days of Methodism there were fre- 
quent controversies over the doctrine of election 
(Calvinism) and free grace ( Arminianism). 
George Whitefield and the Countess of Huntington 
stood for Calvinism, and finally organized a sepa- 
rate Church. This new Church again divided into 
three branches, known as "The Lady Huntington 
Connection," "The Whitefield Methodists/' and 
the "Welsh Calvinistic Methodists." 

The Methodist New Connection. 
Objecting to the Church being governed by 
preachers only, as provided by John Wesley, the 
dissatisfied preachers and laymen, under the leader- 
ship of Alexander Pilham, formed a new organiza- 
tion. The new Church differed from the old one 
in government only, having an equal number of 
ministers and laymen in the Conference. This 
Church was the first to demand lay representation, 
which has been adopted by almost every Methodist 
body. 

The Primitive Methodists. 
This Church was formed because of a difference 
on the question of camp-meetings. The Wesleyan 
Conference in 1807 declared camp-meetings to be 
"highly improper in England, and likely to be 
productive of considerable mischief." Two preach- 
ers were expelled for attending camp-meetings, and 
they organized the Primitive Methodist Church. 



SUSANNAH WESLEY, 

THE MOTHER OF ALL THE METHODISTS. 



THE FAMILY OF METHODISTS 111 



The United Methodist Free Churches. 
This body was formed in 1887 of several smaller 
bodies of Christians. First, the Protestant Meth- 
odists, who had seceded because of the introduction 
of church organs; second, the Arminian Methodists 
of three communities ; third, the Welsh Independent 
Methodists; fourth, the Wesleyan Methodist Asso- 
ciation, which had been formed because of a dis- 
agreement in government; fifth, the Wesleyan Re- 
formers, organized because of the expulsion of three 
preachers who had criticised the Conference. The 
United Methodist Free Churches are in harmony 
with the mother Church in doctrine, but they have 
a congregational form of government. 

The Bible Christians, or Bryanites. 
This Church was formed in 1815, by William 
Bryan. The Church insists on plainness in dress, 
it licenses women to preach, and labors chiefly 
among the poor. 

Methodism in Ireland. 
This organization is independent, and ^ yet is 
connected with the English Wesleyan Conference, 
ten of the Irish ministers being members of the 
legal one hundred. 

Methodism in Foreign Countries. 
Methodism in several foreign countries has be- 
come independent, and in Australia and in Japan 
independent organizations have been formed, hav- 
ing no relation to the mother Church. 



112 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Methodism in Canada. 

In the early days there were missionaries in 
Canada from our American Church, as well as from 
the British Wesleyan Church. Various branches of 
Methodism were formed, but these have all been 
united "under the name of the Methodist Church. 
The bodies making up this organization were the 
Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Metho- 
dist Church of Eastern British America, the Metho- 
dist New Connection Church of Canada, the Primi- 
tive Methodist Church, the Bible Christian Church, 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church. This union 
was recognized by the government in 1844, and it 
embraced all branches of Methodism. Its doctrines 
are like ours, but it differs in its government. It 
has no bishops nor district superintendents, but 
it has General and Annual Conferences. Its Gen- 
eral Conference meeting every four years is pre- 
sided over by a general superintendent, elected 
for a term of eight years. The Annual Conference 
elects its own president, and also a chairman for 
each district. The ministers are stationed by a com- 
mittee composed of the president of the Conference, 
the chairmen of the districts, and one minister 
elected from each district. There are an equal num- 
ber of both preachers and laymen in both the Gen- 
eral and Annual Conferences. This nnion has done 
much to increase the efficiency of Methodism in 
Canada. 



THE FAMILY OF METHODISTS 113 



BRANCHES OF METHODISM IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

The mother Church in the United States is our 
own Methodist Episcopal Church. This is the 
strongest of all the various branches of Methodism. 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
From the very beginning of Methodism in the 
United States the Church took a decided stand 
against slavery, forbidding its preachers to own 
slaves. Bishop James 0. Andrew, however, married 
a widow who inherited slaves from her former hus- 
band. This produced great excitement, and the 
General Conference asked him to give up his office 
until this difficulty was removed. This led to a 
plan of separation, and in 1845 the first Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
was held. There was some disagreement as to 
property, but the Supreme Court of the United 
States decided in favor of the South. Its doctrines 
are identical with ours, and its government nearly 
the same. About the only difference is that it ad- 
mits four laymen from each presiding elder's dis- 
trict to the Annual Conference. 

The Methodist Protestant Church. 
This separation occurred in 1830, because of 
the refusal of the ministry of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church to admit the laymen to the Annual 
and General Conferences; the failure to make the 
presiding eldership an elective office, and the re- 
8 



114 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



fusal to limit the bishops' term of office. Its doc- 
trines are the same as ours, but it has no bishop, 
electing instead a president for each Annual Con- 
ference. It has no district superintendents. 

The Wesleyan Methodist Connection op 
America. 

It was objected, in 1843, that the Church was 
too lax in discipline toward slave-holders. The 
seceders maintained that all slave-holders and all 
who held that slavery was right should be ex- 
cluded from the Christian Church. The Church 
holds pronounced views against all connection with 
the liquor traffic, and against Freemasonry and 
other oath-bound secret societies, refusing fellow- 
ship to members of such societies. It has equal lay 
and ministerial representation in both its Annual 
and General Conferences. 

The Free Methodist Church. 
In 1860 a few preachers and laymen declared 
that the Church was yielding to the spirit of the 
world and forsaking the old paths, and left to or- 
ganize a separate body. This organization is espe- 
cially opposed to oath-bound secret societies, to 
rented pews, to choir singing, to extravagance in 
church building, to the use of liquor, tobacco, etc., 
and it places special emphasis on the doctrine of 
sanetification. It has equal lay representation in 
both Annual and General Conferences, and elects 
a general superintendent every four years. 



THE FAMILY OF METHODISTS 115 



Congregational and Independent Methodists. 

These Churches hold the same doctrines as we 
do, but their government is more like that of the 
Congregational Church. 

Primitive Methodists. 
This is a small body, differing little from the 
Primitive Methodists of England, and working 
chiefly among English immigrants. 

Evangelical Association. 
This organization has sometimes been called the 
Albright Methodist Church. Jacob Albright was 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
preached to the Germans in Pennsylvania. By 
degrees a separate Church was organized, which 
is like ours in doctrine, with the exception that 
the bishops hold office for only four years and 
the presiding elder is elected by the Annual Con- 
ference. 

The United Brethren in Christ. 
Philip William Otterbein, who was a missionary 
of the German Reform Church, and Martin Boehm, 
a Mennonite minister, organized their separate so- 
cieties into a new Church in 1800. While not 
Methodist in origin, it is Methodist in doctrines 
and polity. It has equal lay representation in 
General and Annual Conferences, and elects its 
bishops for four years. The presiding elders are 
elected by the Annual Conference. 



116 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



The African Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Thinking that they would have greater freedom 
and self-respect, certain of the colored people or- 
ganized themselves into a separate Church in 1816. 
It is like the Methodist Episcopal Church in doc- 
trine, and differs very little in government. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 

This Church was organized through a disagree- 
ment in regard to Church government and Church 
property in 1820. They agree with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in government, but elect their 
presiding elders. They have lay delegates in both 
the Annual and General Conferences. 

Union American Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The African Union Church divided in 1865, 
one part forming the African Union Methodist 
Protestant Church, and the other the Union Amer- 
ican Methodist Episcopal Church. It is Wesleyan 
in doctrine. It has bishops, and admits laymen to 
the General and Annual Conferences, and licenses 
women to preach. 

African Union Methodist Protestant Church. 

The full name of this organization is The Afri- 
can Union First Colored Methodist Protestant 
Church of America and Elsewhere. It was or- 
ganized in 1865. It has equal lay representation 
in both Annual and General Conferences. It has 



THE FAMILY OF METHODISTS 117 



no bishops, but elects a presiding officer for the 
General Conference and a president for the An- 
nual Conference. 

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. 
This Church was organized in 1870, under the 
direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. It has its own distinct Conferences. "White 
people are not admitted to membership. 

The Evangelist Missionary Church. 
This Church is made up of colored people who, 
in 1886, seceded from the African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church. They differ from other 
Churches in their singular doctrines on the divinity 
of Christ. 

Zion Union Apostolic Church. 
This is a very small body of colored people, 
having only thirty preachers and thirty-two 
churches. 



According to the figures given by Dr. H. K. 
Carroll, there are 8.741.105 communicant members 
in all branches of United States Methodism. 
If we add three adherents for each communicant, 
we have in the United States a Methodist popula- 
tion of 27,000,000, and about 32,000,000 throughout 
the world. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OTHER DENOMINATIONS 



The Adventists. 
This body was organized under the preaching 
of Rev. William Miller, 1833 to 1844. He de- 
clared that Christ would return in person, and that 
His return is near at hand. The earth will be 
refined by fire, and will form the abode of the 
saved with the holy city in Jerusalem. All be- 
lievers must be immersed. 

The Seventh Day Adventists claim that we are 
bound to observe Saturday instead of Sunday as 
the Sabbath. They declare that not all souls are 
immortal; that the wicked die forever, while the 
good sleep the sleep of unconsciousness until 
Christ's return. They also observe the rite of feet 
washing. They have a large sanitorium at Battle 
Creek, Michigan. 

The Baptists. 
Following the Reformation in Germany, there 
sprang up three types of Baptist preachers: 1. 
The revolutionary and social; 2. the Unitarian; 3. 
the evangelical. Their aim was to restore the 
primitive Church, and they were the pioneers in 

118 



OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 119 



liberty of conscience. They rejected infant bap- 
tism, but only a few practiced immersion. Im- 
mersion, however, later became one of their es- 
sential doctrines and the basis on which com- 
munion was refused to those who had not been 
so baptized. One of the early followers was Menno 
Simons, the leader of the Mennonite Church, 
which was later organized. The English Baptist 
Church originated in the year 1612. In these early 
days the Lord's Supper was served weekly. Among 
the famous Baptists have been John Milton, John 
Bunyan, William Carey (the cobbler missionary), 
Charles Spurgeon, and Roger Williams. Roger 
Williams organized the first Baptist Church in 
America. Through religious persecution, he was 
driven from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and 
founded the Colony that afterward became the 
State of Rhode Island. True to the spirit of his 
Church, he stood for religious liberty, and denied 
the right of the Colony to punish Sabbath breakers 
or to compel worldly people to take oath. The 
Baptists to-day still refuse to invite those who 
have not been immersed to partake of the Lord's 
Supper with them. 

The Christian Church. 
This Church is sometimes known as The Dis- 
ciples of Christ, Christians, or Campbellite Bap- 
tists. It was started in 1811 by Alexander Camp- 
bell, a Baptist preacher of Virginia. It claims to 
have no creed but the Bible, and yet it draws 



120 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



very narrow lines on several questions; among them 
the mode of baptism, insisting on baptism by im- 
mersion. It emphasizes the Lord's Supper, ad- 
ministering this sacrament every Sunday. The 
Church makes a plea for the union of all Churches, 
but of course others are asked to give up every- 
thing and adopt its way of thinking. James A. 
Garfield was a member of this Church. 

The Christian Connection. 
The Christian Connection is made of a union 
of three bodies. In 1793 Rev. James O'Kelley, of 
North Carolina, left the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and organized the Republican Methodist 
Church. In 1800 a branch of the Baptist Church 
in Virginia, and, in 1801, a division in the Presby- 
terian Church in Kentucky and Tennessee united 
with Rev. O'Kelley, declaring that they desired 
to be free from the bondage of creed. Claiming 
the Bible as their only creed, they proceeded to 
organize a new denomination, having as much a 
creed as the parent organizations. One can not 
classify his thinking without having a creed, and it 
is absurd for any man to say that he has no creed. 
Great emphasis is placed on the necessity of im- 
mersion as a form of baptism, but, as opposed to 
the Baptists, open communion is demanded. The 
Church is Congregational in its government, hav- 
ing annual State Conferences and a General Con- 
vention every four years. 



OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 121 



The Christian Union Church. 
The Christian Union Church was organized in 
1864. This denomination claims to unite all other 
denominations on its own platform into one body. 
It puts forth the following principles: 

1. The oneness of the Church of Christ. 

2. Christ the only Head. 

3. The Bible our only rule of faith and practice. 

4. Good fruits the only condition of fellowship. 

5. Christian union without controversy. 

6. Each local church governs itself. 

7. Political preaching discountenanced. 

The Congregational Church. 
In the year 1571, in England, Rev. Robert 
Brown declared the Established Church was in 
bondage to the bishops and that reformation was 
impossible. He advised all true Christians to leave, 
and, in 1580, the first Congregational Church was 
founded in Norwich. This new Church was very 
narrow, refusing communion with those attending 
the established Churches. The Congregationalists 
were vigorously persecuted, and finally an act of 
Parliament for the "punishment of persons ob- 
stinately refusing to come to church" was passed 
in 1592. Under the leadership of John Robinson, 
a large number of them emigrated to Holland, 
and, on July 1, 1620, they left Holland in the 
Mayflower, landing on Plymouth Rock, December 
11, 1620. These were the Pilgrims of early 



m LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



colonial days. The Congregationalists insist on self- 
government in the local church, and coming to 
America so early in our history, this Church had 
its influence on our form of government. State 
Associations or Conferences are held annually, and 
a National Council, which is an advisory body, 
meets every year. 

DtJNKARDS. (DUNKERS OR TUNKERS.) 

This is a sect of German Baptists, originating 
in Germany in 1708, under the leadership of Alex- 
ander Mack. They resemble the Quakers on the 
questions of dress, the taking of oaths, and war. 
They believe in immersion, and have a Congrega- 
tional form of government. The minister is sup- 
ported by the congregation, but receives no fixed 
salary. 

The Episcopal Church. 
In 1534, Henry the Eighth, having a disagree- 
ment with the pope, set up an independent Church, 
which became the Established Church of England, 
and which gradually adopted Reformation ideas. 
From this Church grew the Episcopal Church of 
the United States, with its first organization in 
Virginia in 1584. The Episcopal Church does not 
differ from the Methodist Church in its doctrines 
so much as in the way in which it interprets them, 
and there is a great difference in the use of the 
Ritual and the Church forms and in the spirit of 
the two Churches. 



OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 123 



A bishop of the Episcopal Church presides over 
a diocese, which may be an entire State or only a 
part. Annual Conferences, made up of the clergy 
and three laymen from each parish, are held. The 
legislative body of the Church is a General Con- 
vention consisting of the House of Bishops and the 
House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, the latter be- 
ing made up of an equal number of preachers and 
laymen. The clergy of the Episcopal Church hold 
to the doctrine of apostolic succession; i. e., an un- 
broken ministerial descent from the apostles. This 
doctrine necessitates the idea of pastors of other 
denominations being ecclesiastically inferior. 

Reformed Episcopal Church. 
The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized 
in the year 1873, because of the objections by some 
of the Episcopal clergy to the narrowness of the 
Episcopal Church in its relation to other Churches. 

Friends or Quakers. 
In England (1643-1649), George Fox, a shoe- 
maker, under deep conviction for sin, visited the 
preachers of his neighborhood, but failed to find 
comfort. He finally concluded that Christ alone 
could help him, and his own experience led him 
to emphasize the presence of the Holy Spirit in 
men's hearts as the one thing necessary in Chris- 
tian life. He later declared it wrong to take an 
oath in a court of justice, or to go to war, object- 



124 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



ing also to the use of the names of the days of 
the week and the days of the month, as they were 
originally given in honor of heathen deities. He 
and his followers further objected to a paid min- 
istry, and advocated non-resistance. They refused 
to take off their hats in the presence of judges and 
other dignitaries, declaring that such discrimina- 
tion is vanity. The name "Quaker" was given 
them because, in the year 1650, when George Fox 
was compelled to appear before a justice of the 
peace, he bade him tremble at the name of the 
Lord. The Quakers have always been distinguished 
by simplicity of life and manners, and have pro- 
duced many beautiful characters, among them Wil- 
liam Penn and the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. 

"Without doubt Quaker influence has had much 
to do with present-day agitation for universal peace. 
Christians everywhere now agree with Quakers in 
opposing war. 

The Lutheran Church. 

The Lutheran Church is the organization es- 
tablished in Germany during the life-time of Martin 
Luther (1530 A. D.) as the exponent of his doc- 
trines. In 1623 some Lutherans came to the United 
States from Holland and established the first or- 
ganization in the United States. Martin Luther 
made great advancement over Roman doctrines, 
but his Reformation was incomplete in some points. 
The Church still holds to the bodily presence of 



OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 125 



Christ in the sacrament (transubstaiitiation) and 
allows the lawfulness, if not the usefulness, of 
images in the church, and the private confession 
of sins. The Lutheran Church fails to emphasize 
the opportunity for heart experience through the 
great doctrine of justification by faith, as did Mar- 
tin Luther. There are twenty-three branches of 
the Lutheran Church, and there is quite a differ- 
ence in their doctrines and in their attitude toward 
other denominations, some being as radical against 
other Protestant Churches as the Catholic Church 
itself, while others manifest a spirit of real Chris- 
tian brotherhood. Some are opposed to temperance 
reform and other reforms, while others are as 
progressive as any of our other Protestant 
Churches. Among the various branches of the 
Lutheran Church might be mentioned the "Synod- 
ical Conference " or "Missourians, " the 4 ' General 
Synod of Evangelical Lutherans/' and the "Gen- 
eral Council." The rule of the last-mentioned is: 
"Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran ministers only. 
Lutheran altars are for Lutheran communicants 
only." Foreign-speaking churches adhere strictly 
to this rule. The "Missourians" also form a part 
of the narrow portion of the Church, not only for- 
bidding their members to belong to fraternal or- 
ganizations, but also refusing to co-operate with 
other Christian bodies. The "General Synod," 
however, has a broader spirit of Christian fra- 
ternity and co-operates freely with other denomina- 



126 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



tions in temperance reform, the distribution of the 
Scriptures, and in other ways. 

The Mennonite Church. 
This Church was founded in 1536 by Menno 
Simons, a Catholic priest, who, under the influ- 
ence of the Reformation, became an Anabaptist 
preacher in Germany. He and his followers reject 
infant baptism and the taking of oaths, and they 
refuse to go to law and hold office as civil magis- 
trates. They hold the doctrine of non-resistance. 
They have always advocated civil and religious 
liberty and the complete separation of Church and 
State. Their work has been mostly among Dutch 
and German farmers, particularly in the State of 
Pennsylvania. 

The Moravian Church. 
This Church existed as early as 1457, being 
known originally as the Bohemian Brethren, and 
resulting from the Bohemian Reformation under 
John Hus. Under the leadership of Count Zin- 
zendorf, a town was built by them, in Germany, 
called Herrnhut. Several towns were founded by 
them, in which only Moravians could own real 
estate. It was a Moravian, Peter Boehler, who 
in England was influential in the conversion of 
John Wesley, so that the spiritual life of Meth- 
odism may be traced back through the Moravians 
to John Hus. The Moravians have built several 



OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 127 



towns ; among those in the United States are Beth- 
lehem and Nazareth, in Pennsylvania. The mis- 
sionary spirit has always characterized the Church, 
and a zeal to help all forms of Christian work 
has ever been manifested, even to the neglect of 
the denomination. 

The Presbyterian Church. 

It is claimed that Presbyterianism as a form 
of government existed in the early Church, and 
that as a doctrine it took on new life under John 
Calvin. John Knox was the great leader of the 
Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and Oliver Crom- 
well helped establish the Church in England. 

The Presbyterians have always stood for a strict 
observance of the Sabbath, and as a reaction against 
the early intolerance of the followers of Calvin, 
have manifested a broad and brotherly attitude 
toward other denominations. 

The local church is governed by the church ses- 
sion, which consists of the pastor and the ruling 
elders, chosen by the congregation. These elders 
are chosen and ordained for life, except as they 
or the people see fit to make a change. 

The Presbytery, consisting of all the ministers 
and one elder from each church in a given dis- 
trict, meets twice a year or oftener. 

The Synod, made up of several districts, meets 
once a year, and consists of all the ministers and 
one elder from each church. 



128 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



The General Assembly meets annually, and in- 
cludes all presbyteries, the delegates being chosen 
in equal number from the ministers and the elders. 
The General Assembly of 1902 revised the creed 
of the Presbyterian Church, doing away with the 
severe Calvinistic features of the earlier days. 

The United Presbyterians were organized in 
1732, in Scotland, under the leadership of Rev. 
Ebenezer Erskine, who protested against what he 
considered abuses and corruptions in the Scottish 
Church. 

The Protestant Dutch Reformed Church. 

This Church was organized in the United States 
by Holland settlers in 1858. It originated in 
Switzerland in 1516, under Zwingli, who differed 
from Luther on the question of the Lord's Supper. 
The Roman and Lutheran Churches of to-day agree 
in believing in the real presence, that is, that the 
bread and wine representing the body and blood 
of Christ in the sacrament are actually changed 
into the real body and blood of Christ. This doc- 
trine is not only disgusting, but is contrary to 
the plain meaning of the Bible. The Dutch Re- 
formed Church refused to accept this doctrine. 

The Salvation Army. 
The Salvation Army was organized in England 
in 1878, under the leadership of Rev. "William 
Booth, a preacher in the Wesleyan Methodist 



.OUR SISTER DENOMINATIONS 129 



Church, on the refusal of the Church to take up 
the work among the outcasts, in whom he was in- 
terested. The doctrines of the Army are prac- 
tically those of the Methodist Church, and its or- 
ganization is much like that of an army. Its spe- 
cial work is among the outcasts and neglected. 

The Shakers. 
The Shakers originated in England in the latter 
half of the eighteenth century. The name refers 
to certain peculiar motions which form a part of 
their mode of worship. The original name is " Be- 
lievers in Christ's Second Appearance." The 
founder was Ann Lee, known as " Ann the Word," 
who, they claim, was the second incarnation of 
Christ, this time in "the female line." Their wor- 
ship is accompanied with singing and dancing; 
they never quarrel ; they never marry, but live to- 
gether in colonies, holding everything in common, 
no man calling anything his own. They refuse to 
go to war or to have anything to do with politics. 
Their reputation for purity of life and for re- 
liability and honesty is of the best. 

The Universalist Church. 
This Church was started in the United States 
by James Relly and John Murray, formerly Cal- 
vinistic Methodists, in 1770, as a reaction against 
Calvinism. It emphasizes the love of God to the 
exclusion of His justice, declaring that all souls 
will finally be saved, 
9 



CHAPTER XV 



WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A 
CHRISTIAN 

"How much do you charge a month to let people 
belong to your Church ?" asked a young man re- 
cently, in all seriousness. What a foolish question ! 
And yet there are some people who think they can 
not only buy Church membership in this world, 
but salvation in the next. There are two things 
that are absolutely essential in starting the Chris- 
tian life: 

1. Repentance. — One must know he is a sinner. 
He may declare that he doesn't feel like a sinner, 
but the Bible states that all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God. It is enough if we have 
not had Jesus Christ as Master of our lives; if 
we have sought our own way rather than consulted 
God. Repentance implies not only a sorrow for 
sin, but a turning away and as far as possible 
making restitution. 

2. Faith. — This means not only a belief in God's 
power and willingness to forgive, but an appro- 
priating faith ; a faith that takes God at His word 
and accepts Christ into the heart as Savior. If 

130 



WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 131 



a sinner comes to God sincerely asking forgiveness, 
— what happens ? Does God keep him waiting and 
begging? Of course He doesn't. He forgives, 
and forgives the instant the sincere heart turns 
to Him in sorrow. So that we may know with- 
out doubt, because of God's Word, that He pardons 
our sins, and in the same way, with the same faith, 
we may take Christ into our hearts and lives as 
a Savior. First John 1:9 says, "If we confess 
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
J ohn 6 : 37 says, i 1 Him that cometh unto Me I will 
in no wise cast out." Revelations 3: 20 says, "Be- 
hold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man 
hear My voice and open the door, I will come in 
to him, and sup with him, and he with Me." You 
can multiply these promises, for the Bible is full 
of them. But in applying them you must make 
your faith immediate; that is, you must believe 
that God does what He says He will do noiv, and 
not that He is going to do it some time in the 
future. He will send the assurance of forgiveness 
and the knowledge of your adoption into the king- 
dom of God when your faith is sufficient to take 
Him at His word, instead of waiting for some 
feeling which you have heard some one else de- 
scribe. 

The pretended faith of a man who does not 
live a good life is worth nothing, but his con- 
fession simply brings reproach upon the Church, 



132 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 

so that, having made a start in the Christian life, 
it is necessary that we live righteously, and that 
our faith bear abundant fruit in good works. Hav- 
ing started to be Christians, it is therefore neces- 
sary that we live as Christians ought to live. The 
following suggestions will be found helpful: 

1. Be Teachable. 

Read your Bible regularly, and obey its teach- 
ings. Let the Spirit of God speak to you, and do 
not wound the tender conscience through which 
He speaks. Attend the services of the church, for 
the instruction which you will receive through the 
sermon and Bible lessons, but particularly for the 
help that you will receive in the prayer-meeting or 
class-meeting through the testimony of others and 
from your own testimony. 

2. Trust God Every Day. 

Faith does not end with conversion, — that is 
just the beginning. Realize your utter dependence 
upon God, and trust Him moment by moment for 
guidance. While you will pray at stated seasons, 
be in the spirit of prayer constantly, and develop 
a sense of companionship with God, which in time 
will be just as real to you as your association with 
your friends about you. 

3. Obey God in Every Detail. 

This will mean sacrifice and a giving up of some 
things that you would like to do, but when you 
have sacrificed jour utmost you have done very 



WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 133 



little compared with the martyrs and saints about 
whom we have read in the preceding chapters. 
You may be sure that disobedience will bring de- 
feat and sorrow. Learn to say, 1 6 Thy will be done, ' ' 
in everything. There is no such thing as a happy, 
selfish Christian. 

4. "Witness for God Every Day. 

If the joy of the Lord is to be our strength, 
it will be because we tell others about Him. We 
ought to do this by our daily lives, in our con- 
versation with those we meet as opportunity offers, 
and by our public testimony in religious meetings 
wherever there is opportunity. In the early Church 
every man was a preacher and a soul-winner, and 
so it ought to be to-day. 

5. Join Some Church. 

This is one w r ay of witnessing for Christ. It 
separates you from the world and lets people know 
that you belong with God's people. Study the his- 
tory, the doctrines, and the rules of your Church. 
Attend the religious services faithfully, and help 
the pastor and his assistants to the full extent of 
your ability. Pray for all of the workers by name 
and for your fellow-members. Don't find fault. 
Talk down any dissension that may arise. Seek the 
good there is in people, and remember that a great 
deal more is settled by prayer than by argument. 
Be just as generous as your means will allow in 
your contributions toward the work of the Church 



134 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



and all benevolent enterprises. If you should move 
away from your Church, find another of your own 
denomination near your new home ; and if you are 
to be gone more than three months, take your 
Church letter and unite with the Church. When 
you feel strange and lonely, or are burdened and 
in trouble, go to the pastor and ask for help and 
advice. In whatever part of the world you may 
be, you will find that there is a great fraternity of 
Christian workers; and a man need never suffer, 
though thousands of miles from home, if he 
has a Church letter in his pocket. If there is no 
Church of his own denomination nearby, the pastor 
of another denomination will receive him cordially 
and treat him kindly. The man who lives a right- 
eous life will never lack for friends. God will 
bless him, and good people will be glad to extend 
to him the hand of brotherly love and helpfulness. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE BOOK 

When Columbus sailed the unknown seas 
toward what he supposed was India, his sailors 
were in constant fear, for they thought that the 
earth was flat and that when the ship came to 
the edge it would fall off. The earth had not 
been explored, and so they were in constant dread. 
But without a guide-book, each one of us might 
be in like fear concerning our own lives, for no 
one of us has yet lived to-morrow nor the days 
that are yet to come. But we have a Book which 
has been given to us by God to guide us through 
life, — we call it the Bible. 

One of the first questions which we ask our- 
selves is, 1 1 "Where did we get our Bible?" We 
are not concerned in this chapter with the inspira- 
tion of the Book, — we take that for granted, for 
we know too well to question that without it the 
world would be hopeless and we ourselves would 
be in darkness. 

W r e say that Moses wrote certain books, and 
that David was inspired to write certain of the 
Psalms. Can we find the manuscript bearing the 

135 



136 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



penmanship of these men? No; we have not the 
original copies from any of the writers of the Bible. 
The Jews give Ezra, the scribe, credit for arrang- 
ing and completing a collection of Old Testament 
books. In the third century B. C. seventy-two 
Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the en- 
tire Old Testament, and also the Apocryphal books, 
into Greek. This is called the Septuagint version, 
and was the Bible in common use at the time of 
Christ and His disciples. 

Of course, in Jesus' day the books of the New 
Testament had not been written; but these books, 
twenty-seven in number, w r ere received, each one 
by itself, from the hands of the apostles, and were, 
as their inspired works, gradually collected into 
one volume to the exclusion of all others. We 
have the entire New Testament, with the excep- 
tion of a few verses, in scattered quotations among 
the writings of the early Church fathers. But 
about the close of the fourth century Jerome pre- 
pared a Latin version, known as the Vulgate or 
the common version. This became the Bible au- 
thority of the Roman Church, and remains so to 
this day. 

The first well-known English translation of the 
New Testament was that of Wyclif, made about 
1380. His Old Testament was made in 1382. This 
was before the invention of printing. King Alfred, 
however, had translated portions of the Bible into 
Saxon in the year 900, and Bede, the most famous 




THE CHAINED BIBLE. 



CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE BOOK 137 



scholar of his day, translated the Gospel of St. 
John in the year 735. In the time of Edward I, 
1250, it required the earnings of a day laborer 
for fifteen years to purchase a copy of the Bible. 
Now a printed copy may be had for the earnings 
of half an hour. 

The first printed English Testament was that 
of Tyndale, in 1526, which was afterwards followed 
by the Pentateuch. The first complete English 
Bible, called "Matthew's Bible," was that of Miles 
Coverdale, printed in 1535. "Whittingham and 
others, who lived at Geneva during the bloody 
reign of Mary, published there another version in 
1560, called the "Geneva Bible." During the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth a new revision was made, which 
appeared in 1568, and was called "The Bishops' 
Bible." This continued in use until our present 
English version, made by order of James I, was 
published in 1611. The first copy of this was 
made by forty-seven of the most learned men in 
England, divided into six companies. This copy 
was then revised by a committee of twelve, or two 
from each of the six companies, and still farther 
revised by two others. The splendid King James 
version, which we use to-day, with its beautiful 
English and faithful, clear translation, is an im- 
mortal monument to the learning, wisdom, and 
fidelity of the translators, as well as to the good 
judgment of King James in his choice of assistants. 

In 1885, eminent Biblical scholars of England 



138 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



and the United States completed, after the labors of 
fifteen years, the present-day Revised Version. The 
"American Standard Revision," published in 1901, 
is the work of the American revisors, who labored 
on the Revised Version, brought down to date. It 
is an attempt to put the Bible into modern English, 
substituting modern w T ords for ancient; for ex- 
ample, diminish, for minish, capital, for chapiter; 
since, for sith; know, for wot; love, for charity. 
Our present-day scholars understand ancient lan- 
guages better than the scholars of old, and they 
know better how to deal with the documents in 
their possession, so that of all the versions, the 
most recent, the American Standard Bible, is the 
most accurate. 

The zeal of the Protestants in circulating Bibles 
in England compelled the Roman Church to show 
signs of activity, and they issued a version of the 
New Testament at Rheims, in 1582, and of the 
Old Testament at Douay, in 1609. Their present 
Bible, on the basis of the Douay Bible, adopts 
largely the language of the King James Bible, but 
is in the main a reproduction of the Latin Vul- 
gate. 

While the Bible is one Book, it is made up of 
sixty-six books — thirty-nine in the Old Testament 
and twenty-seven in the New. These books may 
be classified as follows: Old Testament: 1. His- 
torical, Genesis to Esther ; 2. Poetical, Job to Songs 
of Solomon ; 3. Prophetical, Isaiah to Malachi. The 



CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE BOOK 139 



New Testament: 1. Historical, Matthew to Acts; 
2. Epistles, Romans to Jude; 3. Prophetical, Rev- 
elations. 

The Bible, to be of value to us, must be studied 
carefully, thoughtfully, regularly. "We would not 
think of taking our meals at irregular seasons, go- 
ing without food for a week at a time; neither 
should we neglect the regular study of the Bible, 
for God's Book is food needed in our spiritual life. 
Young people should spend at least fifteen minutes 
a day on the Bible. The best time is early in the 
morning, before we have encountered any of the 
burdens of the day. 

Perhaps the most sensible way to study the 
Bible is by topics, biographical or doctrinal topics, 
or others ; but it is well to read the Book through. 
If one reads three chapters a day and five chap- 
ters on Sunday, he will finish the Book in one year. 
In your use of the Bible, mark it freely, using 
the margins for references and notes. Own a good 
Bible, and use the same one, so that you may get 
acquainted with the location of favorite chapters 
and helpful texts. 

In your study apply the same good sense that 
you w r ould to any other book — be reasonable and 
fair. A failure to use ordinary common sense with 
the Bible has produced great divisions in the 
Church and a great loss to the kingdom of God. 
No portion of the Book should be separated from 
the whole Book in determining its meaning, but 



140 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Scripture should be compared with Scripture. We 
ought to seek the meaning intended by the passage, 
rather than the meaning we would like to find in 
order to prove some theory. We ought to con- 
sider the time, the place, and the circumstances 
under which the Book was written. 

The Bible is suited to all classes of people. 
It contains advice and inspiration for the old and 
the young, the learned and the ignorant, the rich 
and the poor, the exalted and the lowly. It is 
suited for all times, for prosperity and adversity, 
for joy and for sorrow. It has a message for the 
good and for the bad, and it has a message for you. 
Read it, study it, memorize its beautiful passages, 
make its promises your own. If possible, learn 
a verse each day. What a storehouse of three hun- 
dred and sixty-five verses you would have at the 
end of the year! Besides your daily text, choose 
a text which will be your motto for the year, and 
find a verse which will indicate your life purpose. 
You will never regret the time you give to the 
study of this inspired Book, and as years come and 
go what you have memorized from its blessed 
pages will become more and more precious. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE PRAYER LIFE 

It is as impossible for one to be a Christian 
without praying as it is to live without breath- 
ing. What we must learn is not to say prayers, 
for oftentimes it would be just as effective to have 
a phonograph do that for us. "What we really seek 
is the development of a continuous prayer life. 
Paul says we should pray without ceasing. That 
doesn't mean that we must be on our knees all 
the time, but that we should develop a continuous 
sense of the presence of God in our hearts, so that 
as we move about on the street, or as we work or 
play, we may feel that God is just as much a com- 
panion as the nearest friend that we meet every 
day. 

But while we are always in the spirit of prayer, 
we ought to have special times when we can meet 
God alone — it may be in the morning, or at noon, 
or at night, or all three, as it was with Daniel. 
Probably the best time of all the day is in the 
early morning, before we have met any one. 

It is also well to have a special place. Daniel 
loved the east window, and Jesus chose the moun- 
tain a great while before it was day, or the garden, 

141 



142 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



or the wilderness. We ought to choose such a time 
and such a place as will give us the most quiet 
and the least distraction. Christ emphasized the 
need of secret prayer, and set us the example by 
His own life. 

It is well to remember that prayer is not merely 
asking God for the things we want. Prayer is 
companionship with God, and the greatest good to 
us comes not from the things we receive in answer 
to prayer, but in our association with the Heavenly 
Father. 

When we pray, we must be sincere. In the 
Lord's Prayer, Jesus impressed upon us this need 
by teaching us to say, " Forgive us our sins, for 
we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." 
(Luke 11: 4.) And again he says, "If thou bring 
thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that 
thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there 
thy gift before the altar and go thy way; first be 
reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer 
thy gift." (Matt. 5:23, 24.) 

God further expects us to be humble and trust- 
ful when we pray. Jesus tells us of the Pharisee 
and the publican, who went into the temple to 
pray, and commended the humility of one and con- 
demned the arrogant pride of the other. The best 
prayers have not been the longest prayers. The 
prayer of the Syro-Phoenician woman and of Peter 
and of the blind men were not long, but were ef- 
fective. 




HOFFMAN. 

CHRIST IN GETHSEMANE. 



THE PRATER LIFE 143 



Be willing to work while you pray. If one 
isn't anxious enough for what he asks of God to 
work for it himself, he surely can not expect God 
to supply it. 

We ought always to pray as did Jesus, saying, 
"Thy will be done," for in our ignorance we do 
not know what is best for us. Sometimes God gives 
us something different, and often something better, 
than the things we ask for. Elijah prayed for 
death when he was discouraged, but God sent him 
food and sleep. Moses prayed to go beyond the 
Jordan, but God showed him the Promised Land 
from the mountain top and let him die in His arms, 
while the angels buried him. Paul prayed for the 
removal of the thorn in his flesh, but God said 
instead, "My grace is sufficient for thee," and he 
developed Christian character that would not other- 
wise have been his. "We can safely trust the kind 
Father to give His children all that they ought 
to have. 

Finally, as we pray, we must pray in faith. 
Jesus said, ""What things soever ye desire when 
ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall 
have them." (Mark 11:24.) Mountains of diffi- 
culty have been removed with mustard seeds of 
faith. When your own faith needs strengthening, 
read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and the 
story of Gideon. 

Study the prayers of the Bible, and learn how 
the saints of old prayed. Read David's prayer, 



144 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Psa. 51; Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 3; Moses' 
prayer, Num. 14:13-20; Isaiah's prayer, Isa. 44: 
1-12; Ezra's prayer, Ezra 9: 5-15; Daniel's prayer, 
Dan. 9:3-21; Jesus' prayer, John 17; our model, 
(Matt. 6 : 9-14), the Lord's Prayer. Real also, Neh. 
1 : 4-11 ; Jer. 14 : 7-22 ; Ezek. 9 : 8-11 ; Jonah 2 : 1-10 - 
Habak. 3 : 1-19. 

Be assured that the time spent in prayer each 
day is not wasted, and know that failure to pray 
in order to save time will really be a loss of time, 
because you will be less effective in your work. 



APPENDIX A. 



THE BIBLE 

Chapters named by C. H. Yatman and Theodore S. 
Henderson. 

After reading one of these chapters in your own Bible, 
write the name at the head of the chapter. 



Abraham's Chapter Gen. 15 

Addition Chapter 2 Peter 1 

Ark Chapter 1 Chron. 13 

Asa's Chapter 2 Chron. 15 

Ascension Chapter Acts 1 

Agrippa's Chapter Acts 26 

Abiding Chapter John 15 

Atonement Chapter Heb. 9 

Admonition Chapter Heb. 13 

Anointing Chapter Exodus 30 

Beginning Chapters Gen. 1; John 1 

Bible Chapter Psa. 119 

Blessing Chapter Deut. 28 

Beautiful Chapter Matt. 5 

Bishops' and Deacons' Chapter 1 Peter 3 

Bottomless Chapter Eph. 3 

Business Men 's Chapter Prov. 8 

Bread Chapter ...John 6 

Baptism Chapter Matt. 3 

Backslider's Chapter Jer. 3 

Christian Worker's Chapter Luke 10 

Character Chapter .Job 29 

10 145 



146 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Courage Chapter Josh. 1 

Corinthian Chapter Acts 18 

Circumcision Chapter Acts 15 

Christian's Psalm Psa. 15 

Creation Chapter Gen. 1 

Commandment Chapter Exodus 29 

Convert's Chapter Isa. 12 

Consecration Chapter Rom. 12 

Come Chapter Isa. 55 

Chapter of Contrasts Luke 17 

Conqueror's Chapter Luke 4 

Crucifixion Chapters Mark 15; John 19 

Deacon's Chapter Acts 6 

Deliverance Chapters Mark 5; Psa. 18 

Discipleship Chapter Luke 9 

Defeat Chapter Joshua 7 

Duty Chapter Ezek. 33 

Ephesian Chapter Acts 19 

Felix's Chapter Acts 24 

Festus Chapter Acts 25 

Faith Chapter Eleb. 11 

Feast Chapter Deut. 16 

Fast Chapter Isa. 58 

Fisherman 's Chapter Luke 5 

Fool's Chapter Prov. 26 

Fear Not Chapter Isa. 41 

Fiery Furnace Chapter Dan. 3 

Great Psalm Psa. 119 

Gift Chapters 1 Cor. 12; 2 Cor. 8 and 9 

Golden Psalm Psa. 16 

Heaven Chapter Eev. 21 

Helpers' Chapter Rom. 15 

Holy Spirit Chapters John 16; Acts 2 

Home Chapter Col. 3 

Humility Chapter Luke 18 

Hypocrite Chapter Matt. 23 



APPENDIX 



147 



Household Chapter Col. 3 

Herod's Chapter Acts 12 

Intemperance Chapter Prov. 23 

I Will Chapter Hosea 2 

Judgment Chapter Rom. 14 

Justification Chapter Rom. 5 

John the Baptist Chapter Luke 3 

John and Peter's Chapter Acts 4 

Joyful Psalm Psa. 93 

Knowledge Chapter Luke 11 

Kingdom Chapter Matt. 13 

Law Chapter Rom. 7 

Living Water Chapter John 4 

Love Chapters ....1 John 3; 1 Cor. 13 

Lost and Found Chapter Luke 15 

Lame Man's Chapter Acts 3 

Life Chapter Luke 7 

Lion's Den Chapter Dan. 6 

Lazarus Chapter John 1L 

Lord's Supper Chapter John 13 

Macedonian Chapter Acts 16 

Manhood Chapters Prov. 3 and 4 

Mother's Chapter Judges 13 

Mercy Psalm Psa. 136 

Messianic Psalm Psa. 110 

Minister's Chapter Ezek. 34 

Marriage Chapter Eph. 5 

Moralist's Psalm Psa. 14 

Moses' Chapter Exodus 15 

Marvelous Chapter Luke 9 

Millennium Chapter Rov. 20 

Nativity Chapter Luke 2 

New Birth Chapter John 3 

Overcome and New Name Chapters Rev. 2 and 3 

Offering Chapter Num. 15 

Purification Chapter ...Num. 19 



148 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Pardon Chapter Tsa. 55 

Passover Chapter Exodus 12 

Paul's Chapter Acts 21 

Prison Chapter Acts 23 

Peace and Promise Chapter John 14 

Prodigal's Psalm Psa. 51 

Pentecost Chapter Acts 2 

Preacher's Chapter Tsa. 61 

Prayer Chapter John 17 

Poor Man's Chapter , Luke 14 

Professor's Chapter Luke 12 

Philip's Chapter Acts 8 

Progress Chapter Phil. 3 

Purity Chapter Ezek. 36 

Question Chapter Luke 20 

Eevival Chapters Joel 2; Acts 19 

Restoration Chapter Micah 4 

Resurrection Chapter 1 Cor. 15 

Refuge Psalm Psa. 46 

Release Chapter Deut. 15 

Rest Chapter Heb. 4 

Rock Chapter Deut. 32 

Redemption Chapter Luke 23 

Responsibility Chapter Ezek. 33 

Retribution Chapter 1 Kings 2L 

Rich Man's Chapter Luke 16 

Repentance Chapter Luke 13 

Safety Psalm Psa. 91 

Salvation Chapter Rom. 10 

Savior's Chapter Matt. 15 

Saloon-keeper's Psalm Psa. 10 

Sin Chapter Rom. 3 

Substitution Chapter Lev. 16 

Sampson's Chapter « Judges 15 

Song Chapter Luke 1 

Sufferer 's Chapter « Isa. 53 



APPENDIX 149 

Shepherd Psalm Psa. 23 

Security Chapter Psa. 91 

Shepherd's Chapter John 10 

Sower 's Chapter Luke 8 

Service Chapter Luke 10 

Sad Chapter Luke 22 

Saul of Tarsus Chapter Acts 9 

Soul-saving Psalm Psa. 126 

Stephen's Chapter Acts 7 

Soldier's Chapter Eph. 6 

Sinner's Chapter Luke 19 

Strengthening Psalm Psa. 20 

Scorner's Chapter Prov. 1 

Separation Chapter 2 Cor. 6 

Seeking Chapter Amos 5 

Shipwreck Chapter Acts 27 

Surrender Chapter Gen. 32 

Soul-winners' Chapter Acts 8 

Sunshine Chapter Isa. 35 

Sympathy Chapter John 11 

To-day Chapter Heb. 3 

Tithing Chapter Mai. 3 

Traveler's Psalm Psa. 121 

Teachers' Chapter Luke 6 

Tonic Psalm Psa. 27 

Tribulation Chapter 2 Cor. 4 

Temptation Chapter Matt. 4 

Victorious Chapter Luke 24 

Vow Chapter Num. 30 

Victory Chapter Rom. 8 

Wisdom Chapter Prov. 3 

Wise Man's Chapter Prov. 15 

Watcher's Chapter Luke 21 

Work Chapter James 2 

Wife's Chapter Prov. 31 

Whosoever Chapter Rev. 22 



150 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



These names are not arbitrary. If you find another 
better call it that, and so with your general Bible read- 
ing. Learn to put the text of the whole chapter in a 
word or a sentence. 

Taken from C. H. Yatman's valuable booklet, ' 1 Lessons 
for Christian Workers. 7 1 

BOOKS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. 

Go through your Bible and mark the beginning of each 
book with the Key-word and name, or Seed-thought. 
Genesis; Beginnings.—" Christ the Seed of the Woman.' 7 
Exodus: Redemption. — " Christ the Passover Lamb. 99 
Leviticus: Laws. — ''Christ the High Priest and Sacrifice. ' ' 
Numbers: Journeyings. — "Christ the Uplifted Serpent and 

Smitten Rock." 
Deuteronomy: Teachings. — "Safety Reached." 
Joshua: Canaan. — 1 ' Triumph." 

Judges: Providences. — "The Acts of the Old Testament." 
Ruth: Love.— "Ruth; the Church; Boaz; Christ." 

1 Samuel. — "Saul and David." 

2 Samuel.— "David." 

1 and 2 Kings — "Solomon; Elijah. History. — Elisha." 

1 and 2 Chronicles. — Kings — "History." 

Ezra. Nehemiah. — "Return and Rebuilding." 

Esther. — ' 1 Hidden Providence." 

Job,— "Suffering." 

Psalms — 4 4 Experiences. 1 9 

Proverbs. — ' 4 Wisdom. 9 7 

Ecclesiastes. — 1 ' Vanity. ' ; 

Song op Solomon. — "The Bride/' 

Isaiah. — "lhe Messiah." 

Jeremiah. — ' 1 Backsliders. 7 9 

Lamentations : Tears. — 1 1 Elegy. ' 9 

Ezekiel : Visions. — "I am Jehovah" (71 times). 

Daniel. — 1 1 Dreams. ' 9 



APPENDIX 



151 



Hcsea. — ''Salvation. " 

Joel. — 4 'Holy Spirit Promised. " 

Amos. — 4 1 Thus saith the Lord" (40 times). 

Obadiah. — * * Triumph. ' ' 

Jonah. — 1 1 Disobedience. ' 9 

Micah. — * 1 Mercy. ' ' 

Nahum. — * ' Nineveh. ' ' 

Habakkuk. — "Trust in Adversity." 

Zephaniah. — 4 'Judgments and Mercies." 

Haggai. — 4 'Temple Building." 

Zechariah. — 4 4 Restoration. 7 7 

Malachi. — * 4 Forerunner. ' 9 



Matthew: For the Jews. — "Prophecy Fulfilled." 
Mark: Peter's Gospel. — "Immediately." 
Luke: Parables. — "Christ the Son of Man." 
John: Christ the Son of God.— " Believe. " 
Acts. Revivals. — "Gospel of the Holy Ghost." 
Romans Doctrines. — 4 4 Judgment; Justification." 

1 Corinthians: Workers. — ' k Love. " 

2 Corinthians. — "Our Sufficiency. " 
Galatians.— "Sonship. " (Ch. 4 :7.) 
Ephesians: Heavenly Walk. — "In Christ." 
Philippians— ' ' Confidence. ' 9 (Ch. 1 : 6.) 
Colcssians: Christ in you. — "Body." 

1 and 2 Thessalonians : Christ Coming Again. — "Com- 
fort. ' ' 

1 and 2 Timothy: Faithful Sayings. — "Doctrine." 

Titus.—' « Wo'rks. ' 9 

Philemon. — 4 ' Brother. ' ' 

Hebrews. — ' ' Better Things. ' 9 

James. — ' 4 Work." 

1 and 2 Peter. — "Precious." 

1 John. — "We Know." 

2 and 3 John.— "The Truth." 
Jude. — ' ' Ungodly. ' ' Apostatis. 



152 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Revelation. — ' 1 Overcoming. ' 9 
Key-word to the whole Bible. "Come." 

HOW TO LOCATE SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 

"The Bible is God's storehouse. It is a big one; has 
numberless rooms, all filled with bins that are heaped 
to the full with good seed. It is net all the same kind, 
but it is all good. Where to find what you want is the 
question. When a farmer wants to plant corn, he doesn't 
go to the bin of wheat, nor to the barley sack when he 
would sow rye. So with the promises, if you want to 
reap joy you get that kind of seed verses. If you want 
grace you go to the Scriptures that promise just that, 
like 2 Cor. 9:8. I find it very helpful to lay my finger 
right on the verse that will cover the need. A five-dollar 
bill will stand one in hand right well if he is hungry and 
near the restaurant, but though he has it yet can't lay his 
hand on it because it is lost on his person or in his room, 
of what value is it to him? Now, thousands of souls go 
hungry because these promises, which are exchangeable for 
bread, are lost. Lost here in the Book. How shall we 
find them? How locate them so when we are in need they 
can be used at a moment's notice? I tell you, friends, 
if you don't use the promises of God you will never know 
their value. You will never love the Bible. Gold as gold 
is worth but little; it is only when it is exchanged for 
our necessities that we get to see how good it is. So with 
the Word of God. 

Some say they can't locate these promises; now, that 
is not so — they can. Put them in as salesmen and they 
will soon find where the goods are kept in the store. Just 
the way a clerk locates the wares of a shop, so locate 
the Scripture passages. Here comes a customer. He wants 
"encouragement in Christian work. " You take him over 
to the Psalm room, first bin, third shelf. 4 'And he shall 



APPENDIX 



153 



be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth 
forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, 
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. ' ' Now, you send 
him away with plenty of goods like that and he will soon 
set up business for himself. Take a good wife and she 
knows just where everything is kept in the house. She 
doesn't go looking for linen in the refrigerator or searching 
for china in the clothes closet. Why, bless your heart, she 
can find the sheets and pillow cases in the dark. Now, in 
the same way a Christian ought to know where to find 
the promises. "What is the use of looking in Jeremiah, the 
book of backslidings, for the promise, ' ' Peace I leave with 
you, My peace I give unto you — let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid. " It is not there; John 
14: 27 has that. Often 1 see Christians searching in the 
Old Testament for Hebrews, or looking toward the end of 
the Bible for Leviticus. Might as well look for New York 
on the Pacific Coast. ' ' * 

If additional Bible work is desired, the leader may tell 
the boys and girls the story of the following children 
of the Bible: Isaac and Ishmael; Joseph, Moses, Samuel, 
David, Abi.jah, the Widow's Son, the Little Captive Maid, 
Joash, Josiah, Jesus, Jairus' Daughter, the Boy with the 
Lunch. They ought also to know something concerning 
the life of each of the following: Enoch, Methuselah, 
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, .Rebecca, Rachel, 
Laban, Lot, Esau, Joseph, Moses, Miriam, Pharaoh, Aaron, 
Joshua, Caleb, Achan, Gideon, Samson, Ruth, Samuel, Eli, 
Saul, Jesse, David, Jonathan, Solomon, Goliath, Absalom, 
Nathan, Rehoboam, Jereboam, Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah, Elisha, 
the Shunammite woman, Naaman, Josiah, Hezekiah, Ezra, 
Nehemiah, Esther, Mordecai, Haman, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar, 
Belshazzer, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, 
Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, 



♦Lessons for Christian Workers, C. II. Yatman, 



154 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Malachi. Tell something about each of the following New 
Testament characters: Zacharias and Elizabeth, John the 
Baptist, Mary, Joseph, Herod, Herodias, Zaccheus, Jairus, 
the Widow of Nain, Lazarus, Mary, Martha, Annas, Cai- 
aphus, Pilate, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Barabbas, 
Simon the Cyrenian, the twelve apostles, Mark, Luke, 
Stephen, Ananias and Sapphira, Paul, Cornelius, Gamaliel, 
Simon the Sorcerer, Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, Dorcas, 
Agrippa, Festus, Caesar, Timothy, Titus, Philemon. 



ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS 



TO ENCOURAGE BIBLE STUDY. 

1. What was Abraham's native laud? 

2. Who led the first labor strike in history? 

3. Who walked off with the gates of a city? 

4. What man sent his servant to find a wife for his son? 

5. What boy died of sunstroke? 

6. What became of the tribe of Joseph in the division 
of Canaan? 

7. Who was the greatest grain dealer of ancient times? 

8. Tell about the foxes which set fire to a field of grain. 

9. What slave baby became a prince? 

10. What man objected to a bath in a muddy river? 

11. What man used stones for a pillow one night? 

12. Name the wife tor whom a man served fourteen 
years. 

13. What feast do the Jews celebrate at Easter time? 

14. What man saved his life by watching the fail of 
an arrow? 

15. When did the fall of an arrow show the destiny of 
a nation? 

16. Who was the oldest man who died before his father? 

17. Name the man who never died. 

18. What man did God bury? 



APPENDIX 



155 



19. Who prayed for death but was given sleep instead? 

20. Who invented musical instruments? 

21. Who founded the first city? 

22. From which of Adam's sons are we descended? 

23. From which of Noah's sons are the Negroes de- 
scended? 

24. From which of Noah's sons are the Jews descended? 

25. What became of the golden calf made by the Is- 
raelites? 

26. Who commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, 
and why? 

27. Name the two spies sent into Canaan who pleased 
God. 

28. In the division of Canaan what tribe received no 
portion, and why? 

29. What man tested God with dew upon the fleece? 

30. When did the loss of long hair cause a man 's over- 
throw? 

31. When did the having of long hair cause a man's 
overthrow? 

32. What wicked king and queen killed a man in order 
to steal his vineyard? 

33. What enemies of a prophet were smitten with blind- 
ness? 

34. To whose funeral did people bring garments? 

35. Under whose preaching did a young man go to sleep 
and fall out of the window? 

36. What book of the Bible is named after a slave- 
owner? 

37. Who took a cruse of water from beside the pillow 
of his sleeping enemy? 

38. In what city was Paul first worshiped and then 
stoned? 

39. Are the angels of the Bible described as men or 
women? 

40. What Scripture reference makes you think that 
heaven is above us? 



156 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Ask the children to give some item of interest about 
each of the following places: City of Enoch, Cave of 
Adullum, Mt. Ararat, Mt. Nebo, Mt. Sinai, the Mount of 
Olives, Athens, Rome, Bethel, Bethany, Bethlehem, Egypt, 
Calvary, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Emmaus, Jerusalem, 
Sodom, Nineveh, Babylon, Pool of Siloam, Nazareth, Nain, 
Sychar, Gethsemane, Jacob's Well, Joppa, Lystra, Melita, 
Patmos, Philippi, Red Sea, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, 
Tarsus, Zion. 

To familiarize the children wUh the location of Scrip- 
ture passages, a Bible drill will be found helpful. Each 
child should be supplied with a Bible; the teacher should 
assign some reference, perhaps the Scripture quotations in 
this appendix, and the children should try to see which can 
find the passage first. 



THE NAMES AND ORDER OF ALL THE BOOKS OF 
THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 



MEMORY CHAIN 



The Books of the Old Testament. 



GENESIS. 

Exodus. 

Leviticus. 

Numbers. 

Deuteronomy. 

Joshua. 

Judges. 

Ruth. 

1 Samuel. 

2 Samuel. 

1 Kings. 

2 Kings. 

1 Chronicles. 



2 Chronicles. 
Ezra. 

Nehemiah. 

Esther. 

Job. 

Psalms. 

Proverbs. 

Ecclesiastes. 

Song of Solomon. 

Isaiah. 

Jeremiah. 

Lamentations. 

Ezekiel. 



Daniel. 

Hosea. 

Joel. 

Amos. 

Obadiah. 

Jonah. 

Micah. 

Nahum. 

Habakkuk. 

Zephaniah. 

Haggai. 

Zechariah. 

Malachi. 



APPENDIX 



157 



The Books of the New Testament. 



MATTHEW. 


Ephesians. 


Hebrews. 


Mark. 


Philippians. 


Epistle of 


Luke. 


Colossians. 


1 Peter. 


John. 


1 Thessalonians, 


2 Peter. 


The Acts. 


2 Thessalonians. 


1 John. 


Epistle to the Eomans. 1 Timothy. 


2 John, 


1 Corinthians. 


2 Timothy. 


3 John. 


2 Corinthians. 


Titus. 


Jude. 


Galatians. 


Philemon. 


Eevelation. 



TEN COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:3-17). 

3. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 

4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or 
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under 
the earth. 

5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve 
them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third 
and fourth generation of them that hate Me; 

6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love 
Me and keep My commandments, 

7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh 
His name in vain. 

8. Eemember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

9. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; 

10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, 
nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor 
thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; 

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hal- 
lowed it. 



158 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



12. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days 
may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee. 

13. Thou shalt not kill. 

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

15. Thou shalt not steal. 

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
bor. 

17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his 
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is 
thy neighbor's. 

SCRIPTURE PASSAGES TO BE MEMORIZED. 

Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 37, Psalm 90, Psalm 91, Psalm 
139: 1-12; Isaiah 55; Matt. 5: 1-12; Matt. 7: 24-34; John 
14:1-21; John 15:1-14; Romans 12:1-21; Ephesians 3: 
14-21; 1 Cor. 13. 

SCRIPTURE PASSAGES COVERING THE PLAN OF 
SALVATION. 

At least forty of the following Scripture passages should 
be learned. These may be selected by the leader. 

All Men Are Sinners. 

" There is no difference, for all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God. ' ' Romans 3 : 22, 23. 

"If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves 
and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not 
sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us." 
1 John 1: 8, 10. 

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned 
every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on 
Him the iniquity of us all. ,; Isaiah 53: 6. 



APPENDIX 



159 



"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate 
the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one 
and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and mammon. ;? 
Matt. 6: 24. 

"He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that 
gathereth not with Me scattereth. ' ; Luke 11 : 23. 

The Fclly of a Sinful Life. 

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?" Mark 18: 36. 

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6: 23. 

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ' ' Eom. 6 : 7. 

"So then every one of us shall give account of himself 
to God." Eom. 14: 12. 

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but 
the ends thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 14: 12. 

1 ' The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can 
not rest; whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is 
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. 57: 20, 21. 

When to Begin the Christian Life. 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 
6: 33. 

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon 
Him while He is near." Isa. 55: 6. 

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the 
day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6: 2. 

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 
EccL 12 : 1. 

"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall 
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Prov. 
29: 1. 



160 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



God Loves Sinners. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish but have everlasting life." John 3: 16. 

"But God commendeth His love toward us in that while 
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. ' 1 Kom. 5 : 8. 

"Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved 
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
1 John 4 : 10. 

God's Invitation. 

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and 1 will give you rest." Matt. 11: 28. 

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; 
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as 
snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as 
wool." Isa. 1: 18. 

"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man 
hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him, and he with Me." Kev. 3: 20. 

**Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with 
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." Luke 10: 27. 

"And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
Rev. 22: 17. 

Repentance. , 

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord and 
He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will 
abundantly pardon." Isa. 55: 7. 

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and 
know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way 
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psa. 139: 
33, 34 



APPENDIX 



161 



"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso 
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. " Prov. 
28 : 13. 

God Will Accept and Forgive. 
"Him that eometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." 
John 6 : 37. 

"For the Son of man is come to seek and save that 
which was lost." Luke 19: 10. 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shall be saved." Rom. 10: 13. 

"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
ness." 1 John 1: 9. 

"And it shall come to pass, that before they call I shall 
answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." 
Isa. 65 : 24. 

* 1 But as many as received Him to them gave He power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
His name." John 1: 12. 

"For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive; and 
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee. ' 9 
Psa. 86: 5. 

"The same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him, 
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved. ' 7 Rom. 10 : 12, 13. 

4 'He is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for them." Hebrews 7: 25. 

"Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of God." Luke 18: 16. 

' 1 And ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye shall search 
for Me with all your heart." Jer. 29: 13. 

The Life Changed. 
"Except a man be born again he can not see the king- 
dom of God." John 3: 3. 

11 



162 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



"Except ye be converted and become as little children 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. " Matt. 
18: 3. 

"A new heart also will 1 give you, and a new spirit 
will I put within you; and 1 will take away the stony 
heart out of your flesh, and 1 will give you an heart of 
flesh. And 1 will put My Spirit within you, and cause 
you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judg- 
ments and do them. ' ' Ezek. 36 ; 26, 27. 

Christ the Savior. 

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time 
Christ died for the ungodly." Rom. 5: 6. 

"But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was 
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace 
was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." lsa. 
53: 5. 

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him 
the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53: 6. 

"Believe on the Lord Jesu3 Christ and thou shalt be 
saved, and thy house." Acts 16:31. 

"To Him give all the prophets witness that through His 
name whosoever beheveth in Him shall receive remission of 
sins." Acts 10: 43. 

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: 
but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." John 3: 36. 

"My little children, these things write 1 unto you that 
ye sin not. And if any man sin we have an Advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2: 1. 

Faith is Necessary. 
"Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for 
he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that 
He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." 
Heb. 11: 6. 



APPENDIX 



163 



"By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of 
yourselves; it is the gift of God." Eph. 2: 8. 

' ' What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe 
that ye receive them and ye shall have them. ' ' Mark 11 : 24. 

Assurance. 

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God. For ye had not received the spirit of 
bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of 
adoption whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father!' The Spirit it- 
self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the chil- 
dren of God." Kom. 8:14-17. 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My 
word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting 
life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed 
from death unto life. ;; John 5: 24. 

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath 
not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5: 12. 

We Must Witness for Christ. 

"Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I con- 
fess also before My Father which is in heaven. But who- 
soever shall deny Me before men him will 1 also deny before 
My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 10: 32, 33. 

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from 
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man be- 
lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession 
is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever 
believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." Eom. 10: 911. 

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- 
lieveth." Bom. 1: 16. 



164 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



We Must Be Willing to Suffer fcr Christ. 

"Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross and follow Me. " Mark 8: 34. 

"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but who- 
soever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the 
same shall save it." Mark 8: 35. 

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, 
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's 
sake: for when I am weak tnen am 1 strong." 2 Cor. 
12: 10. 

4 4 Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend I will 
eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my 
brother to offend.' ' 1 Cor. 8: 13. 

4 4 For if we be dead with Him we shall also live with 
Him: if we suffer we shall also reign with Him: if we 
deny Him, He also will deny us." 2 Tim. 2: 11, 12. 

44 I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless 1 live; yet 
not 1, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now 
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2: 20. 

44 For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your 
faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well 
and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because 
Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye 
should follow His steps." 1 Peter 2:20, 21. 

Temptation and Trial, 

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers 
temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith 
worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, 
that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 
1: 2, 3. 

4 4 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is 
common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer 



APPENDIX 



165 



you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with 
the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may 
be able to bear it." 1 Cor. 10: 13. 

"For the which cause I also suffer these things: never- 
theless I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have be- 
lieved and am persuaded that He is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto Him against that day." 
2 Tim. 1: 12. 

"For it is better if the will of God be so, that ye 
suffer for well doing than for evil doing. " 1 Peter 3: 17. 

"For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, 
He is able to succor them that are tempted. " Heb. 11: 18. 

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when 
he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the 
Lord hath promised to them that love Him." James 1: 12. 

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; 
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
faith. ' 9 1 John 5 : i 

"In all these things we are more than conquerors 
through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate 
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." Rom. 8: 38, 39. 

1 ' I can do all things through Christ which strength' 
eneth me." Phil. 4: 13. 

God's Care of His Children. 

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will 
give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold 
from them that walk uprightly." Psa. 84: 11. 

"Fear thou not for I am with thee; be not dismayed, 
for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee: yea I will help 
thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My 
righteousness." Isa. 41; 10. 



166 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



' 4 Fear not : for they that be with us are more than they 
that be with them." 2 Kings 6: 16. 

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, 
saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." Isa. 41: 13. 

44 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
in trouble. ' 9 Psa. 46 : 1. 

4 'My God shall supply all your needs according to His 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. " Phil. 4: 19. 

"We know that all things work together for good to 
them that love God, to them who are called according to 
His purpose." Rom. 8:28. 

* 4 He that spared not Mis own Son, but delivered Him 
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give 
us all things?" Eom. 8: 32. 

"The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth 
them out of all their troubles." John 34: 17. 

1 4 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they 
shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not 
faint." Isa. 40: 31. 

44 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain 
thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 
Psa. 55 : 22. 

4 4 Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, 
neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with 
thee whithersoever thou goest. " Joshua 1:9. 

4 4 The Lord is with you while ye be with Him; and if 
ye seek Him he will be found of you; but if ye forsake 
Him He will forsake you." 2 Chron. 15: 2. 

4 4 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is 
stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee." Isa. 26: 3. 

The Daily Christian Life. 
4 4 Follow peace with all men; and holiness, without which 
no man can see the Lord." Heb. 12: 14. 

4 4 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do ail in the name 



APPENDIX 



167 



of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by 
Him." Col. 3: 17. 

4 4 For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God 
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 
1 Cor. 6: 20. 

4 4 Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them. ' ' Matt. 7 : 12. 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor 
wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. " Eeel. 9: 10. 

44 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall 
stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean inen. " 
Prov. 22 : 29. 

44 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not 
hear me." Psa. 66: 8. 

4 4 If any man will do His will he shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God or whether 1 speak of my- 
self." John 7: 17. 

4 4 All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Hoiy 
Ghost; teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I 
have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." Matt. 28: 18-20. 

4 4 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not 
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge 
Him and He shall direct thy paths." Prov. 3:5, 6. 

4 4 When a man's ways please the Lord He maketh even 
his enemies to be at peace with him." Prov. 16: 7. 

4 4 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; 
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." 
Prov. 16: 32. 

4 4 In the way of righteousness is life; and in the path- 
way thereof there is no death." Prov. 12: 28. 

4 4 Hoid that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
crown. ' ' Eev. 3 : 11. 



168 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



"I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; 
I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but 
unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim. 
4: 7, 8. 

"The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He 
addeth no sorrow with it. " Prov. 10: 22. 

" A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, 
and loving favor rather than silver and gold. 7 7 Prov. 22: 1. 

"But the path of the just is as the shining light, that 
shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 7 ' Prov. 4: 18. 

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are 
the issues of life." Prov. 4: 23. 

" Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there 
may be meat in mine house, and prove Me now herewith, 
saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows 
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not 
be room enough to receive it." Mai. 3: 10. 

The Final Triumph of the Christian. 

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me 
in My throne, even as 1 also overcame and am set down 
with My Father in His throne. 7 ' Eev. 3: 21. 

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and 1 will 
be his God and he shall be My son." Eev. 21: 7. 

' * Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. 9 7 
John 11 : 26. 

"He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white 
raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the Book 
of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and 
before His angels. 7 ' Eev. 3 : 5. 



APPENDIX B, 



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CON- 
CERNING RELIGIOUS OR- 
GANIZATIONS 



THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 
This name does not characterize the Church, for it de- 
scribes -what the denomination is not rather than "what it is. 
Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, in 1866, collected some 
ideas formerly taught by Dr. William Quimby into book 
form, under the title, 1 'Science and Health, with Key to 
the Scriptures." Special emphasis is given to the healing 
of the sick. The whole system is based on Pantheism. A 
denial of the most evident facts of the senses and an asser- 
tion of untruths constitutes faith on the part of the be- 
liever. 

CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN 
ZION. 

This Church was founded by John Alexander Dowie, in 
1896, in Chicago. The church was later moved to Zion 
City, north of Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. 
Mr. Dowie declared that he was another Elijah, and styled 
himself, * ' The First Apostle of Jesus Christ. " He preached 
divine healing, dealing most vigorously with 1 1 doctors, drugs, 
and devils," and indulging in scathing denunciations of 
good and bad people alike. In 1906 he was deposed as 
head of the Church and banished from membership on 
serious charges. The society was divided into two factions. 

169 



170 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Mr. Voliva, who is the successor of Mr. Dowie, surpasses 
Mr. Dowie himself in denunciation. The Church is now 
rent with dissensions. 

THE CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. 

This Church was founded by Immanuel Swedenborg 
(1668-1772). Swedenborg claimed special communication 
with angels and spirits. He declared that he himself wit- 
nessed the last judgment, 1757, when the evil were cast 
into hell and the good went into heaven. He says that 
he was divinely called to receive a special revelation, and 
while he formed no organization, his followers claim the 
establishment of their church to be in fulfillment of 
p-ophecy. This denomination claims that certain portions 
of the Scripture are inspired, and that Christ is the only 
one God. Swedenborg printed books at his own expense, 
making gifts to university libraries and to preachers. By 
this system, which is still followed, some influential con- 
verts have been made. 

THE MORMON CHURCH. THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 

This organization was founded by Joseph Smith, who 
claims to have translated the Book of Mormon from golden 
plates discovered in 1827, in Palmyra, New York. This 
book claims to be a story of American history, from the 
Tower of Babel to 420 A. D. This Church is active in 
its missionary efforts, and is especially dangerous because 
of its attitude toward the United States Government, and 
its teachings of polygamy. They profess to have discon- 
tinued polygamy. During the period of 1836-62, Utah, under 
Brigham Young, was in armed opposition to the United 
States Government. The Church rules are such that a man 
can not be a loyal Mormon and a patriotic American at 
the same time. 



APPENDIX 



171 



ROMAN CATHOLIC DOGMAS. 

The Church of Rome claims to be apostolic, immutable, 
and infallible. The following table will show how far this 
is from being true: 

Prayer for the dead began 200 A. D. 

Worship of saints, martyrs, and angels, 350 A. D. 

Worship of the Virgin Mary was developed about 431 
A. D. 

Priests began to wear a different dress from the laity, 
500 A. D. 

Worship in an unknown tongue, 600 A. D. 

Papal supremacy, 606 A. D. 

Worship of images and relics imposed, 788 A. D. 

Baptism of bells, 965 A. D. 

Obligatory celibacy of the priests, 1000 A. D. 

Infallibility of the Church, 1076 A. D. 

Sale of Indulgences, 1190 A. D. 

The dogma of transubstantiation officially decreed, 1215 
A. D. 

Auricular confession officially imposed, 1215 A. D. 

The cup kept back from the laity officially sanctioned, 
1415 A. D. 

Purgatory officially recognized, 1439 A. D. 

Romish tradition put on a level with the Scriptures, 
1540 A. D. 

The immaculate conception proclaimed, 1854. 
The pope's temporal power proclaimed, 1864. 

UNITARIAN CHURCH. 
The first Unitarian Church was organized in London 
in 1774. It is not usually classified as a Christian Church, 
because, as its name indicates, it does not believe in the 
Trinity, and teaches that Christ was a mere man and not 
the Divine Son of God. There is very little difference 
in creed between the liberal Jews and the Unitarians, 



172 



LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 
The Young Men's Christian Association was organized 
June 6, 1844, by Mr. George Williams, a dry-goods clerk 
in London. This meeting of a few clerks has grown to 
be a mighty organization, represented everywhere through- 
out the world. Active members must be members of some 
evangelical Church, and 1 4 young men who, regarding Jesus 
Christ as their God and Savior, according to the Holy Scrip- 
tures, desire to be His disciples in doctrine and life. ' ' 
Other young men of moral character may become associate 
members, having no voice in the management of the Asso- 
ciation. 

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 

The Young Women's Christian Association was first 
organized in London in 1855. It is modeled after the 
Young Men's Christian Association, and its aim is to espe- 
cially help self-supporting young women. A most valuable 
feature has been the building of homes in large cities for 
young women. There are several organizations, but their 
work is very much the same. 

THE MODERN JEWS. 

All of the Jews of to-day trace their ancestry back 
to those who returned to rebuild Jerusalem, after the cap- 
tivity. During the captivity most of the tribes were scat- 
tered, and after the return the Hebrews were known as 
"Judaei," Jews, or descendants of Judah. 

Since the time of Christ Jewish history has been a sad 
story of humiliation and persecution. But in spite of the 
contempt and oppression to which they have been sub- 
jected, the Jews have remained as a distinct people, main- 
taining their religious observances and keeping their race 
peculiarities. The Jews everywhere to-day look upon Judea 
as their home country, with Jerusalem as the capital city, 



APPENDIX 



173 



and they look forward to the time when Zion and Jerusa- 
lem will be restored and the Messiah shall come to rule. 
They are divided into various sects: 1. The Orthodox Jews, 
living mostly in Russia, Poland, and the East. Those that 
emigrate to America soon lose their old faith and class 
themselves with the liberals. 2. Conservative Jews, who 
dwell mostly in Great Britain, France, and Holland; and 
3. The Liberal (Reformed) Jews, who live mostly in Ger- 
many and America. 

Of late years the number of Jews in Jerusalem has 
been increasing. Here they gather every Friday beside the 
foundations of the Temple wail, where they lament their 
forefathers' sins and the desolation of Jerusalem. Prayers 
are written on pieces of paper and pressed into the crevices 
of the walls. 

As a race the Jews are more than ordinarily bright 
in intellect. They have distinguished themselves in nearly 
all occupations, producing many great statesmen, musicians, 
scholars, and lawyers. They have been the great bankers and 
merchants of the world. It is estimated that six million 
Jews are scattered in the various countries throughout the 
world. 

The Jews still celebrate several of the feasts and holy 
days of ancient times. The Passover is observed about 
Easter time, and the Feast of Law, commemorating the 
giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Sinai, is 
observed forty days later. 

Late in the summer, usually in August, is celebrated 
the Feast of Tabernacles. This is to commemorate the forty 
years of wandering in the wilderness, as well as being an 
occasion of thanksgiving for the harvest of the year. Even 
the Jews living m the cities try to find a place in the back 
yard, where a little booth, constructed of bushes and of 
flowers, may be erected. The synagogues are trimmed with 
boughs and flowers. 

The Jewish New Year is celebrated early in September. 



174 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Wherever the Jews may be living, it is customary at this 
time to go to the banks of the river and cast upon the 
flowing waters bits of bread from the festival loaf, re- 
peating psalms of praise, such as 4 4 Bless the Lord, O my 
soul," and offering prayers of thanksgiving and asking 
forgiveness for the sins of the year. The flowing water 
symbolizes the passing away of time and the washing away 
of sin. They believe that on New Year's Day the records 
in heaven are made complete and the account of every Jew 
is closed. 

The Day of Atonement comes one week after the New 
Year. On the day before, each member of the family takes 
a chicken and, after circling it about the head three times 
and confessing his sins, throws it away from him upon the 
ground or into a corner of the room, signifying that in 
like manner he has cast away his sins. The chicken is 
then killed and prepared for the feast after the Day of 
Atonement. At six o'clock in the evening the family go 
into the synagogue, there to fast and pray for twenty four 
hours. The men dress in their grave clothes. There is 
no cooking done on that day, and the women do not carry 
so much as a handkerchief. With the appearance of the 
first star in the evening, the Kohan (sacred officer) blows 
a long blast from the Ram's Horn, a sorrowful wail, in- 
dicating that the Day of Atonement is ended and that 
the day of feasting has begun. The chickens, which were 
dressed and prepared before the Day of Atonement, are now 
used in the big feast. 

The ordinary Church service consists chiefly of reading 
the law in the synagogue in the Hebrew tongue, with a 
variety of Old Testament prayers. The Orthodox Jews 
abstain from meats prohibited by the Levitical law, buying 
their meats only at kosher markets, where they know the 
animals have been slaughtered according to proper Jewish 
requirements. The Jews offer prayer for the dead, and 
believe in purgatory as a place where the souls of the 



APPENDIX 



175 



wicked remain for a year, and they believe that only a few 
suffer eternal punishment. They believe in one God, the 
Creator and Preserver of all things; that lie has always 
lived and will live forever, and that He alone must be 
worshiped, and that we ought to adore no others as Medi- 
ators or Intercessors. There have been prophets divinely 
inspired in the past, and there may be yet in the future. 
Moses was the greatest of all the prophets, and the law 
given to him was dictated by Almighty God, syllable by 
syllable. God knows all of our actions, and governs them 
according to His pleasure. He rewards obedience, and 
punishes violations of law, but the best reward and the 
worst punishments are saved for the next world. God will 
raise the dead at the last period of time, and pass judg- 
ment on all mankind. A Messiah will appear, of much more 
merit and luster than all the kings before Him, and though 
His coming is delayed, we ought neither to doubt the cer- 
tainty nor to prescribe the time, and much less attempt to 
foretell it from the Scriptures. 

ANCIENT JEWISH SECTS. 
The Pharisees. 

About one hundred years before Christ the Jews began 
to grow worldly and lose interest in the old way of doing 
things. They wanted to be like the people who lived about 
them, the Greeks. As a result of this a party called the 
Pharisees sprang up. These men were very zealous for the 
external observance of the law. In their attempt to be 
loyal to things that were old, they gave the traditions of 
their fathers as much authority as the Scripture writings, 
and they finally gave them even more authority. They 
were extremely careful about tithing even the herbs of the 
garden, but forgot the requirements of justice, mercy, and 
humility. The Pharisees fasted rigidly at fixed times, but 



176 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



wickedly indulged their selfishness at all times. While 
they were careful about cleanliness in their person and 
utensils, they were unmindful of purity of heart. They 
burdened the consciences of the people with silly questions, 
such as whether it was lawful to eat an egg laid on the 
Sabbath, or of what material the wick of the Sabbath lamp 
should be made. 

The Pharisees believed in the immortality of the soul 
and the resurrection of the body. They believed in future 
rewards and punishments, and that God day by day guided 
men, who at the same time were free to choose for them- 
selves. There were among them, of course, some of genuine 
piety, such as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Saul, 
afterwards Paul, was also a Pharisee. While Christ recog- 
nized the authority of their Scriptural teachings, He fre- 
quently rebuked their unscriptural traditions and their 
pride, covetousness, ostentation, and hypocrisy, and He 
thereby incurred their hatred, so that they allied them- 
selves with their political and religious opponents and formed 
a part of the council that sentenced Him to death. (Matt. 
23: 2 ; 3; Luke 16: 14, 15; Matt. 22: 15-34; Matt. 23: 59-68.) 

The Sadducees. 

The Sadducees represented the more liberal element of 
the Jews, including many who were high in position and 
wealth. They disregarded all the traditions and unwritten 
laws which the Pharisees prized so highly, and they pro- 
fessed to consider the Scriptures, especially the Pentateuch, 
as the only source and rule of the Jewish religion. They 
denied the existence of angels and spirits, and taught that 
the soul died with the body; and stated that there was 
neither future reward nor punishment. They declared that 
every man determined his own destiny, independent of God. 
The Sadducees favored a liberal policy toward the Greeks 
during the Maccabean period. They were secular rather than 



APPENDIX 



177 



religious, and might be compared to the liberal Jews of 
to-day; while the Pharisees represent the Orthodox Jews. 
They scoffed at the idea of purity of vessels, and declared 
that the Sacred Writings were less pure than the writings 
of Homer. There were not very many of them, and they 
included only the rich and those of the highest dignity. 
They had little influence with the people, especially on re- 
ligious questions, and hence the criticism of Jesus was 
directed mainly against the Pharisees. The disciples, how- 
ever, were warned to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees; 
probably referring to the secular spirit of the Sadducees. 
It was the Sadducees who tried to puzzle Jesus with the 
question concerning the resurrection. They objected to His 
driving the money-changers from the Temple, and to His 
calling Himself the Son of David. They further tried to 
make trouble for Him by asking whether they should pay 
tribute to Caesar. Many of their members were represented 
in the Sanhedrin, among whom were Annas and Caiaphas. 

The Essenes. 

This sect of the Jews lived a simple life, practicing magic, 
observing the law in some things and not in others. These 
people never married. 

The Scribes. 

The Scribes were men who in the early days copied 
government documents and portions of the Scripture, but 
in later days they were also teachers of the divine law. 
Ezra, the prophet, was a scribe. They were very particular 
not to allow any errors to creep into the Scriptures, and 
to avoid mistakes they would count the letters in copying 
the Mosaic law. While they attached a superstitious im- 
portance to letters and numbers in the Scriptures, in later 
years they included decisions and interpretations of the law 

12 



178 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



-with the law itself, and gradually, in their desire to honor 
these precepts, they set them above the Scripture, making 
it the greater sin to offend in any of these lesser points. 
Becoming very proud of their position, there developed quite 
a competition for popular respect between the scribes and 
the priests, for the position of the priest was hereditary, 
belonging as they did to the tribe of Levi; but the scribes 
were chosen from among the common people. Most of them 
were Pharisees. Coming as they did from the ranks of 
the common people, they were the real leaders of the people. 
They delivered lectures in the outer court of the Temple 
in Jerusalem, their followers sitting on the ground about 
them, while the teacher occupied a raised bench. Imaginary 
questions were brought up and decided by the pupils them- 
selves, and oftentimes these learners were allowed to attend 
the disputes of the scribes. They were very ambitious of 
honor, and demanded of the pupils a loyalty above that given 
to the father and the mother. 

The Hercdians. 

The Herodians were a Jewish political party devoted 
to the Herods. They willingly submitted to the Eoman 
power and upheld the law requiring the payment of tribute 
to the emperors, which the Pharisees denied. They desired 
the continuance of the Jewish religion, and they opposed 
Jesus. (Matt. 22:16; Mark 2:6, 12, 13; Luke 20:20.) 

The Samaritans. 

The Samaritans were a mixed race made up of Israelites 
and heathen brought in from various parts of Assyria at 
the time of the captivity. Their religion at first was heathen, 
but, terrified by the ravages of lions, they sought to pro- 
pitiate God by bringing back an Israelitish priest to Bethel, 
and mingling with their own idolatries a corrupt worship 



APPENDIX 



179 



of Jehovah. (2 Kings 17: 25-33, 41.) Of course, such a 
mixed race and religion was despised by the Jews, and 
when on their return from captivity the Samaritans asked 
the privilege of helping to rebuild the Temple, the Jews re- 
jected the offer. Because of this refusal the Samaritans 
did all they could to hinder the rebuilding of the Temple 
and the walls of Jerusalem. This enmity was increased 
when the Samaritans erected a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim, 
where they offered sacrifices according to the Mosaic law. 
Ihe Samaritans rejected all of the Hebrew Scriptures except 
the Pentateuch. In the time of Jesus * 'Samaritan 7 ' was 
a term of bitter contempt, and the Jews sought to avoid 
all intercourse with them, taunting them with their heathen 
ancestry. 

The Sanhedrin. 

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jews at 
Jerusalem. This term was also sometimes used to indicate 
the lower courts. It was made up of seventy-one members 
called elders, chosen from the chief priests and scribes. It 
was necessary for these men to be learned, humble, and 
popular with their fellow-men. They chose from their num- 
ber a president or high priest. Caiaphas was the president 
before whom Jesus appeared, and Annas presided at tha 
trial of Paul. The Sanhedrin met daily, except on Sabbath 
and festival days, the members sitting in a semi-circle, with 
the president in the center. It inflicted punishment and 
also death by stoning, burning, beheading, or strangling, 
until this right was taken from them by the Romans, about 
three years before the crucifixion of Christ. (John 18: 
31, 32.) Both Pharisees and Sadducees were admitted as 
members. Paul's teacher, Gamaliel, was an influential mem- 
ber of the Sanhedrin (Acts 5: 34-40), and the apostle, 
before his conversion, occupied some position under the 
seventy-one. (Acts 7: 58; 8:1.) 



180 



LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



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APPENDIX 



183 




APPENDIX D. 



PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN 



BEFORE MEALS. 

God is great, God is good, 

And we thank Him for this food. 

By His hand must all be fed. 

Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen. 



For this and all His mercies, God's holy name be 
praised. Amen. ______ 

God bless this food, 

Which now we take, 
To do us good, — 

For Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, 

And bless what Thou hast given us. Amen. 



MORNING. 

Jesus, keep me all this day, 
When at school and when at play; 
May I do the things I ought, 
May I hate each evil thought; 
Help me love and trust in Thee, 
Now, and through eternity. Amen. 



Dear Jesus, make me like what You were when You 
were — years old. 

184 



APPENDIX 



GERMAN PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN. 



BEFORE MEALS. 

Komm, Herr Jesu! sei unser Gast, 

Und segne was Du uns bescheret hast. Amen. 



AFTER MEALS. 

Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, 
Das du unser Gast gewesen bist. 
Bleib du bei uns, so hat's nicht not: 
Du bist das rechte Lebensbrot. Amen. 



MORNING. 

In Gottes Namen steh ich auf, 
O leite, Jesu, meinen Lauf ! 
Begleite mich mit deinem Segen; 
Behiite mich auf meinen Wegen. Amen. 



EVENING. 

Lieber Gott, nun schlaf ich ein, 
Schicke mir ein Engelein, 
Lass es an dem Bette stehen 
Und nach meinem Herzen sehen, 
Dass es werde fromm und rein, 
Wie es muss im Himmel sein. Amen. 



GENERAL. 

Ich bin klein, 
Mem Herz sei rein, 
Soli niemand drm wohnen 
Als Jesus allein. Amen. 



LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Christi Blut und Gerechtigkeit, 

Das ist mein Schmuck und Ehrenkleid, 

Damit will ich vor Gott bestehn, 

Wenn ich zum Himmel werd eingehn. Amen. 



BOHEMIAN PRAYERS. 

BEFORE MEALS. 

Zehnej, Pane Boze mity, 
Tyto dary lasky Tvd; 

Telu udel zdravi, sily, 
Dusi pak milosti sve I 



AFTER MEALS. 



Za Tve* dary, Boze, TobS 
Vrouci diky vzdavame, 

Budiz s nami v kazde* dobe* 
Neb jen v Tebe doufame ! 



morning. 

Modlitba rannl pro dSti. 
Ty's mne ze sna probudil 

Pane Boze miljr, 
Zdrav zas z Juzka provstal jsem 

V te*to ranni chvili. 



APPENDIX 



DSkuji Ti, Boze muj, 
Ze's mne chranil v noci, 

Bud' mi i dues pfftomen 
Bozskon svoji moci. 

Uc mne Ty sam hodn^m b^ti, 

Rodicu sv^ch ctiti, 
Uc mne plnit vuli Tvoj 

A vzdy lepsim b^ti. 



EVENING. 

Modlitba Vecerni pro dSti. 
Mnoha jsi mi dobrodini 

Dnes, 6 Boze, prokazal, 
DSkuji a prosim nyni, 

By's mne v ochranu svou vzal. 

Kdyz ja v noci budu spati, 
Bdi Ty, Pane, nade mnou, 

Vezmi te*z i otce, mati 
V otcovskou ochranu svou. 

Odpusf mi i moje viny, 
Dejz, bych zitra lepsim byl, 

A dej, bych sve* vsecky ciny 
Laskou k Tobe posvStil I 



SLOVAK PRAYERS. 

MORNING. 

Ranni Modlidba. 
Z loze vstavam, 
Chvalu vzdavam 
Otci memu 
Nebeskemu 
Za straz nocni 
Boze vecni 
Rac take mne 
Tohoto dne 



188 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



Ostri hati 
Ode vseho 
Skodliveho 
Amen Pane 
At se stane. 
Amen. 



EVENING. 

Vecerni Modlidba. 
Pujdu spati, dej mi vstati 
0 muj Boze ; zmeho loze, 
V rannim, case a zdravu zase 
Amen Pane a? se stane. 
Amen. 



BEFORE MEALS. 

Ditek Modlidba Pred jidlem. 

Oci vseho tvoru doufaji v Tebe : 
Pane a Ty davas jim pokrm jejich, v cas pri hodny. 
Otviras ruku Svouna nasicujes, Kazdi zivocichpodle 
dobre libezne vule Sve. Amen. 

SWEDISH PRAYERS. 
(Morning.) 

FOR MORGONEN. 

Pris vare Gud, som later 
Oss glade vakna opp 
Och over jorden ater 
En nadedag ga, opp. 
En dag, som skall forsvinna, 
Likt den i gar forgick. 
0, ma vi da besinna 
Dess dyra ogonblick! 
Var k-aft, o Gud, fdroka 
Att vi mcd trof asthet 
Ma forst ditt rike soka 
Och din rattfardighet. 



APPENDIX 



189 



Da vill du nadigt skanka 
Allt ovrigt at envar. 
0, ma vi det betanka 
I dag och alia dar. 

(Evening.) 

FOR AFTONEN. 

Trygg i din yard jag lamnar mig, 
Nar solen f ran oss Ayr ; 

Och gladligt skall jag prisa dig, 
Nar dagen ater gryr. 

Men om det stilla dodens bud 
I denna natt jag hor, 

Det ar min trost, att din, o Gud, 
Jag lever och jag dor. 

(Table blessing.) 
BORDSBON, 

I Jesu namn ga vi till bords, 
Ata, dricka pa Guds ord ; 

Gud till ara, oss till gagn, 
Sa fa vi mat i Jesu namn. 



NORWEGIAN-DANISH PRAYERS. 

BEFORE MEALS. 

I Jesu navn gaar vi til bord 
At spise, drikke paa dit ord, 
Dig Gud til ere, os til gavn ; 
Saa faa vi mad i Jesu navn. 



EVENING. 

Nu lnkker jeg mit oie, 

0 fader i det hoie, 

1 varetegt mig tag. 

Fra synd, fra sorg fra fare, 
Din engel mig bevare, 
Som ledet har min fod idag. 



APPENDIX E 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 

1. Was Adam a Jew? 

2. Did Abraham belong to a Church? 

3. How many years after Adani did Moses receive the 
Ten Commandments? 

4. What kind of a house of worship did they have in 
the wilderness? 

5. Were the people allowed to go inside the building to 
worship? 

6. Tell how sacrifice was offered. 

7. Tell about the altar of incense. 

8. Tell about the Holy of Holies. 

9. How many years after Adam was Solomon's Temple 
erected? 

10. Where did the Jews worship when there was no 
synagogue? 

11. Tell about the music of the early Jewish Church. 

12. Describe a church service at the time of Christ. 

13. Who were the Pharisees? 

14. Tell about the Sadducees. 

15. Who were the Essenes? 

16. Tell about the Scribes. 

17. Who were the Herodians? 

18. Tell about the Samaritans. 

19. Tell about the membership and duties of the San- 
hedrin. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 

1. Give one of Peter 's sermons, and one of Paul 's. 

2. What did they use for hymns in the early Church? 

3. How often did they partake of the Lord's Supper, 

and of what did it consist? 

190 



APPENDIX 



191 



4. "Who were members in the Church of the Apostles? 

5. Did the early Church members own any property? 

6. Name one of the deacons in the early Church, and 
one of the deaconesses. 

7. What helped the growth of the early Church? 

8. Name two martyrs mentioned in this chapter. 

9. Who was the wicked Eoman Emperor who persecuted 
the Christians? 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III 

1. Where did the early Christians hold their religious 
services during the time of Eoman persecution? 

2. Tell about Constantme 's vision. 

3. What happened to the Church when the government 
gave its assistance? 

4. Tell about Hypatia. 

5. When was the Greek Church separated from the Eoman 
Church? 

6. From what two cities were these two Churches gov- 
erned? 

7. Tell about the rise of the monks. What was their 
influence on the Church? 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV 

1. Give the name of the notorious seller of indulgences. 

2. Why were these indulgences sold? 

3. What event caused Martin Luther to post his ninety- 
five theses? 

4. Tell something about the life of Luther. 

5. How did the pope try to punish Luther? 

6. What did Luther say when reminded of John Hus 
and his fate? 

7. What did he say when asked to recant? 

8. What did he say concerning Duke George? 

9. Give the first line of one of Martin Luther's hymns 
found in the Methodist HymnaL 



192 



LESSONS FOE METHODISTS 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 

1. From what country did John Calvin come? 

2. What is the doctrine known as "Calvinism?" 

3. "Who was Zwingli? 

4. Tell about the death of Zwingli. 

5. Who was the great leader of the English Eef orma- 
tion? 

6. For what did he criticise the Eoman Church? 

7. Tell about his translation of the Bible. 

8. Tell about Henry the Eighth and the pope. 

9. Who was John Hus? 

10. What was his criticism of the Eoman Church? 

11. Tell about his execution. 

12. Who was Jerome? 

13. Tell the story of Jerome's execution. 

14. Who was the great leader of the Eeformation in 
Italy? 

15. Tell the story of Savonarola's execution. 

16. Who were the Huguenots? 

17. Tell about Saint Bartholomew's Day. 

18. Who were Philip the Second, Duke of Alva, William 
of Orange, and Erasmus? 

19. What is Arminianism? 

20. Tell about the Spanish Inquisition. 

21. Who was the ' ' Lion of the North?" 

22. What started the Eeformation in Poland and Hun- 
gary? 

23. Who was the great leader of the Scotch Eeformation? 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 

1. What was the leading Church in England at the time 
of John Wesley's birth? 

2. Tell about social conditions at this time. 

3. Tell about John Wesley's family and his early life. 



APPENDIX 



193 



4. Tell about John's life at the Charterhouse School and 
at Oxford. 

5. Tell about the ' 1 Holy Club. ' ' 

6. Tell about Wesley's visit to America. 

7. Tell about the Moravians and John Wesley. 

8. Give several instances of persecution of early Meth- 
odists. 

9. Give a summary of the life of Wesley and his works. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 

1. Tell about the card game and Barbara Heck. 

2. Tell of the early meetings and Captain Webb. 

3. Name the first Methodist church building in the 
United States. 

4. Describe the interior of the church. 

5. What action did Wesley take toward the American 
Church at the close of the war? 

6. Name the first two missionaries and the first two 
bishops. 

7. Tell about Freeborn Garrettson. 

8. Who was Jesse Lee ? 

9. What society did Boehm and Gruber start? 

10. Tell the story of Eichmond Nolly. 

11. Tell the story of Peter Cartwright. 

12. Tell something of Bishop Asbury's work. 

13. Tell about James McCarty. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 

1. What does the Methodist Discipline have to say about 
eternal punishment and the inspiration of the Scriptures? 

2. Tell what is contained in the four Articles of Re- 
ligion that are believed by Catholics and Protestants alike. 



194 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



3. How did Wesley express the doctrines of Methodism 
briefly? 

4. What does the Church say concerning purgatory? 

5. Give two other doctrines of the Methodist Epsicopal 
Church. 

6. Kepeat from memory the Ten Doctrines of Grace. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IX 

1. Name ten Methodist rules. 

2. What does the Church have to say about temperance? 

3. What is said about marriges and divorce? 

4. What is said about amusements? 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER X 

1. What is the governing body of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church? Who comprise its membership? 

2. What is the work of the General Conference? 

3. What is an Annual Conference, and how many are 
there in our Church? 

4. Who appoints the preachers? 

5. Who comprise the Quarterly Conference? 

6. Who comprise the Official Board? 

7. Tell how a church member may be tried. 

8. Does a local church own its own property? 

9. What is the work of the trustees? 

10. What is the work of the stewards? 

11. What is an exhorter? 

12. What is a deaconess? 

13. What is a local preacher? 

14. What is a traveling preacher? 

15. What is a supernumerary preacher? 

16. What is a superannuated preacher? 



APPENDIX 



195 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XI 

1. What is the Methodist Book Concern? 

2. Tell of the work of the Foreign Missionary Society. 

3. Does the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society work 
with men? 

4. Tell of the work of the Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension. 

5. Tell of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. 

6. What are the duties of the Board of Education? 

7. How many Sunday-schools in our Church? 

8. What is the work of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants ? 

9. What is the Freedmen 's Aid Society doing? 

10. How old is the Epworth League? 

11. What is the Methodist Brotherhood? 

12. What is the work of the City Evangelization Union 
and the Temperance Society? 

13. Tell of the Deaconess Movement. 

14. Tell of the American Bible Society. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XII 

1. What do our hymns do for the Church? 

2. Who was the world's greatest hymn- writer? 

3. Name several of his hymns. 

4. Tell something about John Newton, and name one 
of his hymns. 

5. Tell something about Frederick W. Faber, and name 
one of his hymns. 

6. Name one of Frances Ridley HavergaPs hymns, and 
tell how it came to be written. 

7. Tell something about Isaac Watts, and name one of 
his hymns. 

8. Name a hymn written by a blind preacher. 

9. Tell the story of (i Jesus, Lover of My Soul." 



196 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



10. Name the author of ' ' Rock of Ages, 7 7 and tell 
something of his life. 

11. Give the authors of 4 4 Nearer, My God, to Thee 7 ' 
and "All Hail the Power of Jesus 7 Name. 77 

12. Name your two favorite hymns. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XIII 

1. How many different branches of the Methodist Church? 

2. Which one is the original mother Church? 

3. Tell something about each of the following: 

a. The Calvinistic Methodists. 

b. The Primitive Methodists. 

c. The Canadian Methodists. 

d. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

e. Methodist Protestant Church. 

f. Free Methodist Church. 

g. Evangelical Association. 

h. United Brethren in Christ. 

i. African Methodists. 

4. How many communicant members are there in the 
world-wide Methodist Church? 

5. How many adherents to world-wide Methodism? 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XIV 

1. What is the belief of the Adventists? 

2. Tell about the Seventh Day Adventists. 

3. In what country did the Baptist Church originate? 

4. Name three famous Baptists. 

5. Tell of the work of Roger Williams. 

6. What attitude has this Church always taken toward 
religious liberty? 

7. Tell about the organization of the 4 ' Christian 
Church. 77 

8. What does the Christian Church attempt to do? 



APPENDIX 



197 



9. Is it reasonable for a man to say that he has no 
creed? 

10. Tell about the Christian Union Church. 

11. Tell of the organization of the Congregational 
Church. 

12. For what does this Church stand? 

13. Tell about the Dunkards. 

14. Tell of Henry the Eighth and the Episcopal Church. 

15. Tell of George Fox and the Quakers. 

16. For what do the Quakers, or Friends, stand? 

17. To whom does the Lutheran Church trace its origin? 

18. Tell about the narrow and the broad branches of the 
Lutheran Church. 

19. Tell of the Mennonites and the Moravians. 

20. Tell what you know about the Presbyterian Church. 

21. Tell about the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church. 

22. Tell of the organization of the Salvation Army. 

23. Tell about the Shakers. 

24. For what does the Universalist Church stand? 

25. Seek additional information concerning denomina- 
tions working near your own church. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XV 

1. What is it to repent? 

2. Tell what we must do and what God does when we 
become Christians. 

3. Name five things that Christians ought to do. 

4. What does the Bible do for the Christian? 

5. Does a man need any more faith after he is con- 
certed? 

6. Ought we to sacrifice for God? 

7. Can we be good Christians and not let others know 
that we belong to God? 

8. Name six things that a good church member ought 
to do. 



198 LESSONS FOR METHODISTS 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XVI 

1. Have we the Bible in the handwriting of the men 
who wrote it? 

2. What Old Testament scribe collected the books that 
had been written? 

3. What version of the Bible did men in Christ's time 

use? 

4. In what century did Jerome prepare the Vulgate? 

5. Who made the first well-known English translation 
of the New Testament? 

6. Compare the cost of a Bible in King Edward's time 
and now. 

7. Who were Tyndaie and Coverdale? 

8. Tell about the King James Version. 

9. By whom and when was the Kevised Version pre- 
pared — the American Standard Kevision? 

10. Tell of the divisions of books in the Old and New 
Testaments. 

11. How often ought we to read the Bible? 

12. How may the Bible be studied? 

13. Tell how to rightly determine the meaning of a 
passage of Scripture. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER XVII 

1. Is it possible for one to be a Christian without pray- 
ing? 

2. Tell the difference between saying prayers and pray- 
ing. 

3. What does 1 1 Pray without ceasing" mean? 

4. Ought we to have a special time for prayer? 

5. Is a special place helpful? 

6. What is prayer besides asking God for what we want? 

7. Name three qualities that we ought to have when 
we pray. 

8. Tell about two prayers of the Bible that you have 
read. 



INDEX 



Abraham, religion. 15, 16. 
Adam, religion, 15, 18. 
Adams, Sarah F.. 103. 
Adoption, doctrine of, 77. 
Adventists, 118. 
Advocates. 90. 
Albright. Jacob, 59, 115. 
Alfred, King, 136, 137. 
Almsgiving, 76. 
Alva, Duke of, 43. 
American Bible Society, 95, 96. 
Amusements, 83. 
Ananias and Sapphira, 23. 
Apocryphal Books, 136. 
Apollos, 21. 

Articles of religion, 66 to 76; 

Ten Doctrines of Grace, 76, 77. 
Asbury, Bishop Francis, 57, 64, 

65. 

Baker, Henrv W., 99. 

Baptism, 66, 72, 73. 

Baptists, 118, 119. 

Bede, 136, 137. 

Bernard of Olairvaux, 9S. 

Bible Christians, 111. 

Bible, Matthew's, 137; Geneva, 
137 ; Bishops', 137 ; King James 
Version, 137; Revised Ver- 
sion, 138; American Revised, 
138; Douay Bible, 138. 

Bible Books named, 150, 151, 152. 

Bible Chapters, 146 to 150. 

Bible Questions, 154, 155, 156. 

Bible References, 158 to 168. 

Bishops, in earlv Church, 24: 
Methodist, 84,87,88; mission- 
ary, 90; record of Methodist, 
180. 

Board of Conference Claim- 
ants 93 

Board'of 'Education, 92. 

Board of Foreign Missions, 90, 
91. 

Board of Home Missions and 

Church Extension, 91, 92. 
Board of Sunday-Schools, 93. 
Boardman, Richard, 56. 



Boehler, Peter, 51, 126. 
Boehm, Martin, 59, 115. 
Bohemia, Reformation in, 39. 
Book Concern, 90. 
Booth, William, 128,129. 
Bryanites, 111. 
Bunyan, John, 119. 

Caesar, 23; sacrifices to, 25. 
Calvin, John, 86, 37; 127. 
Campbell, Alexander, 119. 
Cartwright, Peter, 59. 60, 61. 
Carey, William, 119. 
Charles V, 34. 
Charles IX, 42. 

Christian Catholic Apostolic 
Church in Zion, 169, 170. 

Christian Connection, 120. 

Christian Church, 119. 

Christian Guide Book, The, 135 
to 141. 

Christian Science Church, 169. 
Christian Union Church, 121. 
Christian, What it means to be 

a, 130 to 135. 
Church Extension Society, 91, 

92. 

Church, before Christ, 15 to 21; 

of the Apostles, 21 to 27; fall 

of, 27 to 31. 
Church of the Kew Jerusalem, 

170. 

Class leader, 85. 

Coke, Bishop Thomas, 57. 

Coligny, 42. 

Commandments, Ten, 15, 18, 
157, 158. 

Conference, Annual, 84, 85, 86; 

General, 84, 85, 86; Quarterly, 

84, 85, 86. 
Confirmation, sacrament, 72. 
Congregational Church, 121,122. 
Constantine. 27, 28. 
Coverdale, Miles, 137. 
Coxe, A. C, 104. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 127. 
Crusades, 30. 
Cyril, St., 28. 



200 



INDEX 



Daniel, 141. 

David, 18; psalms of, 19, 135. 

Day of Atonement, 17, 174. 

Day of Pentecost, 24. 

Deacons, in early Church, 23, 
24; Methodist, 88. 

Deaconesses, in early Church, 
21; Methodist, 85, 87. 88; W. 
H. M. S., 92; deaconess move- 
ment, 94, 95. 

District Superintendent, 85, 87. 
88. 

Divorce, 82. 

Dorcas, 24. 

Dow, Lorenzo, 59. 

Dowie, John Alexander, 1C9, 

170. 
Dress, 82. 
Dunkards, 122. 

Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker, 169. 
Edward I, 137. 
Elder, Methodist, 88. 
Elijah, 143. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 137. 

Embury, Philip, 55, 56. 

England, Reformation in, 38,39, 

English Church, 88; in 18th cen- 
tury, 45, 46; organization, 122. 
123. 

Enoch, 15. 

Episcopal Church, see English 

Church. 
Epwor th League, president, 85 ; 

literature, 90; organization, 

94. 

Erasmus, 43. 
Erskine, Ebenezer, 128. 
Essenes, 177. 

Ethiopians, in early Church, 
23. 

Exhorter, 85, 87. 
Extreme unction, 73. 
Ezra, 136. 

Faber, Frederick William, 100. 
Faith, 131, 132. 
Fasting, 81. 

Feasts, Passover, 17, 30, 173; of 
First Fruits, 17; of Trumpets, 
17; of Tabernacles, 17, 173; of 
Law, 173. 

Fox, George, 123. 124. 

France, Reformation in, 42. 

Freedmen's Aid Society, 93. 

Free Will, 70. 

Friends, see Quakers. 

Garfield, James A., 120. 
Garrettson, Freeborn, 57, 58. 



George, Duke of Saxony, 33, 34 

Gideon, 143. 

Good works, 71. 

Greeks, in early Church, 23. 

Greek Catholic Church, 29, 30. 

Gregory, Pope, 42. 

GrifTen, 62. 

Gruber, 59. 

Gustavus Adolphus, 44. 

Havergal, Frances Ridley, 100. 
101. 

Heber, Reginal, 104. 
Heck, Mrs. Barbara, 55. 
Henry V11I.38, 39, 122. 
Herod, 24. 
Herodians, 178. 

Holy Spirit, 69; witness of, 77. 
Huguenots, 42. 

Hungary, Reformation in, 44. 

Huntington, Lady, 104, 110. 

Hus, John, 83, 84; during Refor- 
mation, 39, 40; death, 40; Mo- 
ravian Church, 126. 

Hypatia, 28. 

Images in Churches, 29, 72, 171, 
Indulgences, 31, 32, 83, 171. 
Innocent VIII, 41. 
Inquisition, 43, 44. 
Invocation of saints, 72. 
Italy, Reformation in, 42, 43. 

James 24. 

James I, 137. 

Jerome of Prague, 40, 41. 

Jesus, and Money changers, 18; 
teaching in synagogue, 20; 
the words of, 22; doctrines of, 
23; divinity of, 68; resurrec- 
tion, 68; prayer, 141, 142, 143. 

John, sermons, 21; story of 
Polycarp, 25. 

Jews, beginning of race, 15; 
religious services, 16, 17, 18, 19, 
20; Christian Jews, 23; mod- 
ern Jews, 172 to 175; ancient 
sects, 175 to 179. 

Junior League, Superintend- 
ent, 85. 

Justification, 70; sin after, 71; 
doctrine of, 76, 

Knox, John, 39, 127. 

Ladies' Aid Society, president, 
85. 

Leaders, suggestions for, 9. 
Lee, Ann, 129. 
Lee, Jesse, 59. 



INDEX 



201 



Leo X, 33. 

Local preachers, 85, 86, 87, 88. 

Lord's Supper, in early Church, 
22; in catacombs, 27; Greek 
and Roman Churches, 29; 
sacrament, 72, 73, 74, 81. 

Luther, Martin, theses. 32; early 
life, 32, 39; during Reforma- 
tion, 33, 3i; translation of Bi- 
ble, 34; hymn, 35; followers 
in Netherlands, 43; Reforma- 
tion incomplete, 45; results, 
66; organization of Lutheran 
Church. 124. 

Lutheran Church, 34, 124,125,126. 

Mack, Alexander, 122. 
Manaen, 23. 

Marriage, of priests, 29, 171; 
sacrament, 72, 73; of minis- 
ters, 74; of Methodists, 82. 

Mary, Queen, 137. 

Masses, 74. 

Matheson, George, 102. 
Maxentius, 27, 28. 
McOarty, James, 64, 65. 
Memory Chain, 156, 157. 
Mennonites, 119, 126. 
Menno Simons, 119, 126. 
Methodists, the family of, 109 
to 118. 

Methodist Brotherhood, presi- 
dent, 85; organization, 94. 

Methodism, John Wesley and, 
45 to 55; early days of Amer- 
ican, 55 to 66. 

Methodist Churches (abroad), 
Wesleyan, 109; Calvinistlc, 
110; New Connection, 110; 
Primitive, 110; United Free, 
111; in Ireland, 111; in For- 
eign Countries, 111; in Can- 
ada, 112. 

Methodist Churches (in U. S.\ 
Episcopal, 113; Episcopal, 
South, 113; Protestant, 113, 
114; Wesleyan Connection of 
America, 114; Free, 114; Con- 
gregational and Independ- 
ent, 115; Primitive, 115; Al- 
bright, or Evangelical Asso- 
ciation, 59, 115; United Breth- 
ren in Christ, 115; African 
Episcopal, 116; African Epis- 
copal Zion, 116; Union Amer- 
ican Episcopal, 116; African 
Union Protestant, 116, 117; 
Colored Episcopal, Evangel- 
ist Missionary, 117; Zion 
Union Apostolic, 117. 



Methodist Doctrines, 66 to 78. 
Methodist Government, 84 to 90. 
Methodist Institutions and 

Benevolences, 90 to 97. 
Methodist Rules, 78 to 84. 
Miller, William, 118. 
Milton, John, 119. 
Monks, 30. 

Moravians, 50, 51, 126. 
Mormon Church, 170. 
Moses, commandments, 15; 

writings, 135; prayer, 143. 
Murray, John, 129. 
Music, in Temple, 19; in early 

Church, 21. 

National City Evangelization 

Union, 94. 
Nero, 25. [43. 
Netherlands, Reformation in, 
New Year's Day, 173, 174. 
Noah, 15. 

Nolley,Richmond, 59,61, 62, 63,64. 
Norway, Reformation in, 44. 

Oaths, 16. 

Official Board, 85. 

Oglethorpe, Lord, 50. 

O'Kelley, James, 120. 

Onesimus, 23. 

Orders, sacrament, 72, 73. 

Original sin, 70. 

Otterbein, Philip William, 117. 

Palmer, Ray, 99. 

Pastor, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88. 

Paul, sermons, 21; Lord's Sup- 
per, 22; persecutions (Saul), 
24; death, 25; prayer, 143. 

Penance, sacrament, 72, 73. 

Penn, William, 124. 

Perronet, Edward, 104 

Perseverance of saints, 77. 

Peter, sermons, 21; crucified, 
25; prayer, 142. 

Peter the Reader. 28. 

Pharisees, 175, 176. 

Philemon, 23. 

Philip II, 43. 

Phylacteries, 19. 

Pilgrims, 121, 122. 

Pilham, Alexander, 110. 

Pilmoor^Joseph, 56. 

Poland, Reformation in, 44. 

Polycarp, 25. 

Prayer life, the, 141. 

Presbyterian Church, 127, 128. 

Property, Church, 87. 

Protestant Dutch Reformed 
Church, 128. 

Purgatory, 29, 72, 171, 174, 175. 



INDEX 



Quakers, 123, 124. 

Reformation, in Germany, 31 
to 36; in other countries, 36 
to 45. 

Regeneration, doctrine of, 77. 

Relics, 38. 

Relly, James, 129. 

Repentance, 131. 

Romans, in early Church, 23. 

Roman Catholic Church, sepa- 
ration, 29, 30; doctrines, 29, 31 ; 
during Reformation, 33, 34, 37 
to 44; dogmas, 171. 

Ruckle, Paul, 55. 

Sabbath, changed to Sunday, 
22. 

Sacraments, 72, 73. 
Sadducees, 176, 177. 
Saint Bartholomew's Day, 42. 
Samaritans, 178, 179. 
Sanctification, doctrine of, 77. 
Sanhedrin, 179. 

Savonarola, 30; during Refor- 
mation, 41, 42. 

Scandinavia, during Reforma- 
tion, 44. 

Scotland, Reformation in, 39. 

Scribes, 177, 178. 

Scriptures, inspiration of, 67, 
69, 70. 

Septuagint, version, 136. 
Shakers, 129. 

Slavs, Reformation among, 44. 

Smith, Joseph, 170. 

Solomon, Temple, 16, 18. 

Spain, righting Netherlands, 
43 ; during Reformation, 43, 44. 

Spurgeon, Charles, 119. 

Stephen sermon, 21; deacon, 
23; death of , 24. 

Stewards, 85, 87. 

Superannuate, 89. 90. 

Supernumerary, 88, 89. 

Sunday - school, superintend- 
ent, 85; literature, 90; Board 
of, 93. 

Sweden, Reformation, 44. 
Swedenborg, Immanuel, 170. 
Switzerland, 86, 37. 
Synagogues, 18; service in, 19; 
Jesus teaching in, 20. 

Tabernacle, description, 16 ; 

altar, 16, 17; altar of incense, 

17; Holy of Holies, 18; Ark of 

Covenant, 18. 
Temperance, 79, 81, 82; Church 

Society, 94. 



Temple, 16, 18 : Court of Women, 

18; Court of Gentiles, 18. 
Tetzel, John, 31, 32. 
Toplady, Augustus M., 103. 
Transubstantiation, 73, 74, 171. 
Traveling preacher, 88. 
Trials, 86, 87. 
Trinity, 68. 
Trustees, 85, 87. 
Tyndale, 137. 

Unitarian Church, 171. 
Universalis t Church, 129. 

Voliva, 170. 
Vulgate, 136. 

"Washington, George, 50. 

Watts, Isaac, 101. 

Webb, Captain Thomas. 56. 

Wesley, Charles, birth, 46; 
hymn writer, 47, 97, 98, 102, 103; 
"Holy Club," 49. 

Wesley, John. 45; early life, 46, 
47, 48, 49; trip to America, 50; 
conversion, 51; preaching, 51, 
52, 53; death, 54; American 
Methodism, 55, 56, 67; theol- 
ogy, 67; missionary, 91. 

Wesley, Samuel, Jr., hymn 
writer, 47. 

Wesley, Samuel, Sr., 46 to 49. 

Wesley, Susannah, 46 to 49. 

Whitefleld, George, 45; Oxford, 
49: conversion, 51: Calvinist, 
110. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 100, 
124. 

Whittingham, 137 

William of Orange, 43. 

Williams, Roger, 119. 

Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society, 91. 

Woman's Home Missionary 
Society, 92. 

Works of Supererogation, 71. ' 

World Wide Missions, 91. 

Wyclif, John, 38, 39, 40; his writ 
ings, 39; Reformation incom- 
plete, 45; translation, 136. 

Young, Brigham, 170. 

Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, 172. 

Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation, 172. 

Zinzendorf, Count, 126. 
Zwingli, 87. 



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